Touring the Universe... or Universal

Next on our weekend romp around LA was a visit to the movie studio where one of my most favorite series of movies was filmed.  Back in the mid to late 80's, Back to the Future was filmed in sets around Universal Studios (as well as a few local areas too).  It was an easy walk to the Studios from our hotel and even though the temperatures were soaring, it didn't stop us from exploring.

Hubby outside the gates of Universal Studios Hollywood

On our way to find the "Back Lot Tour" ride, we spotted this eatery, so I had to have a picture.  Very fitting considering one of the highlights of our tour would be the Back to the Future town square...

Mmm... Doc Brown's Chicken

We finally made it into line for the...

Entrance to the "world famous" Universal Backlot Studio Tour

I have to tell you all a "secret" from Universal... when you get to the park head straight to this tour, just like the map/guide tells you to.  Why?  Because the line gets HUGE!  We were lucky to have gotten to the park about 10 minutes after it opened and only had a 20 minute wait for this ride.  By the time we finished, the line was a 50 minute wait... but worth every minute standing in line!  Here are a few of our "highlights".

First the tram took us down a long winding road to the bottom of the large hill where we twisted our way through the back lot streets, past many studios where current shows are being filmed.  Here's the studio lot where one of my favorite current shows, Parenthood, is filmed:

Trailers for stars of NBC's Parenthood

We made our way through the studio stages onto the backlot "city" streets, past this huge screen of NYC:

NYC backdrop on the backlot

Have I mentioned how much I love the "Back to the Future" movies? ha ha.  Well, tragically a couple years ago, Universal had a HUGE fire on the backlot where the original BTTF courthouse was one of the many causalities of the fire.  Here is the new courthouse in the "Courthouse Square" of the BTTF/Universal backlot:

 

New Courthouse on Universal Backlot

Another fun sight for me on the tour was the gas station from BTTF:

Gas Station from Back to the Future

This picture is the main street in "Town Square" where Michael J. Fox drove the DeLorean to catch the lightening bolt back to the future:

Main Street in Back to the Future (and other movies)

Also along the tour we experienced King Kong in 3D (not as good as the original King Kong ride at Universal Orlando), we were "Mummy"fied and we were almost crushed (not really) by "Fast and Furious" cars and an earthquake.  We also drove through the movie cars graveyard where yep, you guessed it, that DeLorean from BTTF has been laid to rest:

Check out Biff's car beside the DeLorean

We became world travelers on our tram tour as well, visiting...

Old Town Mexico

The Past in an Old Town

Lyon Estates (from Back to the Future... of course!)

Europe

The Old West

(I think this was Doc Brown's place in the 3rd Back to the Future)

Amity Island (where Jaws attacked)

And then we head into Wisteria Lane... where the Desperate Housewives live.  First was the "Drew House", home of Rose Kemper (also the house in the movie The Burbs and Nancy Drew Mysteries):

4348 Wisteria Lane - home of Rose Kemper

Across the street is "Delta House", the home of Desperate Housewive's character, Ida Greenburg:

4347 Wisteria Lane - Ida Greenburg's Home

Next door is the "Allison" home, also known as the Solis residence:

4349 Wisteria Lane - Gabrielle's house

Next door to Gabrielle's is the "Munster" home, where that creepy "Munster" family lived back in the 60's.  It's currently the Hunter/McDermott home.

4351 Wisteria Lane - Former home of the Munsters (1960s)

Across the street from Gabrielle's is the home of Martha Huber

4350 Wisteria Lane - former home used in TV series Dragnet and Adam 12

Down and across the street is Susan's home, formerly used in the 70's Hardy Boys series and the New Lassie 

4353 Wisteria Lane - Susan's Home

Across the street from Susan is the home of Bree, the former site of the old Leave it To Beaver house,

4354 Wisteria Lane - Bree's home

Next door to the former Leave it to Beaver site, is the home used in the movie "Leave it To Beaver", also the home of the show's narrator, Mary Alice Young

4352 Wisteria Lane - Narrator Mary Alice Young's former home

Two doors down is the home of Mike Delfino, also used in the 1987 movie "The Burbs"

4356 Wisteria Lane - Mike Delfino's House

At the end of the street before the cul-de-sac turn-around, is a small parkette,

Wisteria Lane Parkette

At the end of the cul-de-sac, beside the parkette is Edie's home at 4362 Wisteria Lane.  This home replaced an old church set on this particular lot

4362 Wisteria Lane- Eddie Britt's home

The house on the left of Eddie's is an unnamed home at this point, but worthy of sharing.  It has a great view of the grassy knoll in the middle of the cul-de-sac:

4360 Wisteria Lane - Unknown Resident's Home

As we left Wisteria Lane (which I might add was my dream neighborhood ... house-wise, not neighbor-wise) we ended up in Whoville...

Whoville Home

before checking into the creepy Bates Motel.

The Bates Motel

The "Psycho" innkeeper of the motel lived in this rundown house...

Psycho House

right next door to a horrific sight of a plane crash that looked like it was the "War of the Worlds"...

War of the Worlds Set

Around the corner from the crash site is the home of TV's "Coach" out in the woods,

Cabin used in TV series, "Coach" and The Great Outdoors movie

After our tour ended, we spent the rest of the hot, sunny California day riding the rides and watching the shows at Universal Studios.  The Waterworld show and the Jurrasic Park water ride were our favorite afternoon activities.  Between those two events, we listened to the Blue Brothers sing, saw Marilyn Munroe and her friends along the main street and I had the opportunity of hanging out with a few astronauts...

Hanging with the men from Apollo 13

Sunday morning we enjoyed our free continental breakfast at the hotel...

before making our way down Interstate 5 towards San Diego.  We made one quick stop along our way at Knott's Berry Farm to do a little Snoopy shopping.  Even the boys had a peek around the store, visiting family and friends.  Sebastian, who we "adopted" from this very "Daisy Hill Puppy Farm" almost 3 years ago had a wonderful family reunion with his brothers and sister...

The whole family:  Olaf, Spike, Andy, Sebastian (Marbles) Belle and Snoopy

Simon got a little crush on a California Surfer Girl in the store...

Simon has a crush on a Surfer Girl

while Snoopy got some tips from Joe Cool

Snoopy with Joe Cool

We totally enjoyed our time in the Los Angeles area but it was time to move on.  Next stop... San Diego to meet Kacy!  Stay tuned for the next chapter.