Whew! We made it out of Jurassic Park without losing anyone in the process. Gotta give it to Tram Driver Ted, he did a great job! Of course with all the excitement it was lucky for us we came across this:
Actually that is just a building from the Old Mexico set. As we made our way through the town, Al Roker from the Today show came on the monitors to give us an update on the weather throughout the studio. Mr. Roker gave us a warning that there could be some flash flooding in the area. Hmm...It looks sunny and warm to me. Not a cloud in the sky. I wonder what hes talking about?
Hmm...That water is coming down pretty fast...
Um...Tram Driver Ted...Thats a lot of water...Do you want to move out of its path?
I think i know what Mr. Roker was trying to warn us about! Tram Driver Ted...MOVE!
Thank goodness there was a barrier wall, although now my feet are a little wet!
This was pretty cool though, to see how they can make their own weather at the studios. All that water is recycled back to use for the next flood.
As we continued on, we saw some great set buildings that were used in some of the old western movies. These sets are actually facades.
In cases where they use only the porch or outside of a house or building, they dont build the entire thing, because it would be too costly, so they build facades. They do this also with city scenes like in Transformers, where the New York city street is blown up. It would be way too costly to build entire buildings to be blown up, when they can easily use the facades which have the same look, but are never used for more than just a street view.
In that picture. The buildings off to the left hand side are actually made of styrofoam. Just thought that was an interesting tidbit.
As we made our way into 6 points Texas, we got to see the old western sets that were built back in the silent film days.
And right across the way, was an italian village.
Its amazing how they separate the different sets and make them seem so real, even though, from one moment to the next you are in completely different worlds. I dont know anywhere else you can go from an old western, to an italian villa in just a few moments. And then be completely transported into a train station...
Wait...This place doesnt look very safe...Oh goodness! EARTHQUAKE!
There we are minding our own business when the floor begins to shake. (Why is it that as I wrote that line, the first thing to pop into my head was the song from The Wizard of Oz?) Next thing you know, sparks are flying and the roof caves in. Out of nowhere a semi comes barreling through the broken ceiling. Just as we thought it couldnt get any worse, flames erupt from the semi carrying a tanker of gas. Thats when we hear it. The approaching train. Its going to fast. It wont stop in time! It crashes and breaks in half, one half almost hitting our tram!
As Tour Guide Sandy tells Tram Driver Ted to get a move on, a water main breaks on the other side and water starts rushing in from everywhere! Tram Driver Ted puts the pedal to the medal and out we go! Safe and sound on the other side!
Dont believe me?
Click here to see for yourself (Sorry for any noise interference. Darn speakers!)
Ok Ok...So it was a sound stage and not an actual earthquake. This set was actually used for a scene in the TV show Bones...The production company for the TV show rented the sound stage just for this specific effect. It was pretty cool to watch it on the monitors and see how it transpired on film, but it was even better to watch it in person. T-Man may have something less enthusiastic to say about it since he was the one that got wet. You can actually hear him freak out a little when the water hits him in the video. He did laugh a little.
As we moved on, we made our way to a serene island off the coast...I think its a pretty popular place from what they tell us. Maybe you recognize it...
We were a little disappointed that the beach was closed at the moment, but thought it would be fun to look around anyway.
As we were getting closer to the waters edge, we saw a fisherman in the water. Tour Guide Sandy was trying to yell at him to get out, as the beach was closed and we would hate for him to get a ticket for being somewhere he shouldnt be when...
JAWS (Again, sorry for the noise pollution. Although if you listen closely at the end you can hear T-Man laugh a little, see, nothing scares him. not even a shark!).
Poor fisherman...If only he would have heeded the warning on the sign.
According to Tour Guide Sally, the universal shark was better than the shark used for the film, because the universal one worked! Seems they had all kinds of problems with the mechanical shark in the film, and was constantly holding up production because of the issues.
Does anyone remember Ms. Mona's Chicken Ranch?
We then got to take a little tour of Wisteria Lane for all you Desperate Housewives Fans out there.
This is where Gabrielle Solis lived:
Bree Van de Camps house...
Lynette Scavos place...
And Susan Delfinos house...
Along with a shot of Mikes hat. Hey I never said I was a professional.
Since Desperate Housewives has gone off the air, this street is no longer known as Wisteria Lane, it is now known as Mockingbird Lane:
The house in that picture will be for the new TV show, sort of a modern version of The Munsters.
Just up the road was a set most people will recognize from a popular Dr. Seuss book/movie:
Its WhoVille, from the movie How The Grinch Stole Christmas. Those houses were made completely of styrofoam and chicken wire. Very creative if you ask me.
Just on the opposite side of WhoVille, we came across this motel:
And came across this as we past by:
Now Im not the brightest bulb in the bunch, but Im pretty sure he saw us. I mean we are in this massive, 4 car tram, with no windows, waving for all to see. But...maybe we were able to sneak by him.
or...maybe not...
Step on it Tram Driver Ted!
You know, I think this tour may be hazardous to our health. Getting attacked by Dinosaurs, involved in an earthquake, almost eaten by Jaws and now being chased by Norman Bates...geez! What else could happen?
Maybe I shouldnt have said that...
As we escaped the clutches of Norman Bates, we came across this horrendous scene.
According to Tour Guide Sally, This plane is from a scene in War of the Worlds. And this is not a styrofoam prop made to look like an airplane, this is an actual plane that they bought, and ripped apart for the scene.
Just beyond the scene of the crash, was a green screen set behind a body of water. They use this for any scenes that use bodies of water, like a boating scene or something along those line. This way they dont have to go out on location to some major lake or ocean, they can do it all here with green screen technology.
They have used this for films like The Truman Show, and just recently for the movie Battleship. I believe they also used this for the Disney movie, Pirates of the Carribean: On Stranger Tides.
Yes Ponzi, I know that the Disney movie is not a Universal movie. In order to use it Disney would have rented the space to film the scenes needed. Which they can do, Universal is nice like that. Give me enough money and I would be too.
We traveled past a wooded forest like area, that they use for scenes that well...take place in the woods...I think she mentioned that scenes in CSI have been shot there.
As we continued to drive, Tour Guide Sally mentioned that there was a cave up a head that was the Tomb of Impotep. This is said to be cursed by many among the Universal Studios lot, and so no one goes in there. Scary things are said to happen, and so we were going to just drive around it.
Unfortunately no one told Tram Driver Ted about this and he drove right into the cave.
Tour Guide Sally was a little nervous. You could hear it in her voice. But she stayed calm and tried not to panic. According to her, the legend was that there was a curse on the tomb and anyone who entered would be cursed as well. I was fine until she mentioned the flesh eating scarab beetles...
The tram came to a stop and all of a sudden the room around us started to spin...or was it us spinning and the room was still? You heard the mummy begin to talk in his native tongue and it didnt sound like he was saying Hey Whats up? Wanna beer?
The curse was clarified when up on the monitors comes Whoopi Goldberg who begins to talk to us and then all of a sudden is covered from head to toe in those beetles.
Again...STEP ON IT TRAM DRIVER TED! If im cursed Im suing him...he's the driver!
This marked the end of our journey through the backlot tour. Jimmy Fallon came on the monitors again to say goodbye with a song he wrote called: Tram-Tastic!
We had a great time together, and now the ride is done.
We saw some crazy cool stuff and had a lot of fun.
This tram has made its final stop
But dont be sad and blue
Because theres still one thing, Id like to say to you
Have a tram-tastic day
Have a tram tastic night
Watch your step as you exit the tram
And everything will be alright
Ok guys, I should be able to wrap up the rest of Universal soon, so T-Man can begin talking about DCA. I hope you enjoyed the tram journey. I hope I didnt bore you to tears. And if I did...Oh well...Obviously youre still reading this so I must have done something right! You are still reading right? Hello? Anybody?
We will be there 12/1-12/15
out of me when I was a kid.
