But Universal has grown over the decades from a studio tour into a full-fledged theme park, as most recently seen by its ongoing billion-dollar-plus "Evolution" development plan, including this spring's opening of The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. At Universal Studios Hollywood these days, the visitor experience is more geared toward getting immersed in the themes and narratives of popular franchises that going behind those scenes for a spoiler-filled look at their production.
From Universal's annual attendance gains over the past years, it appears that fans love the new direction for the park. But what about movie fans who still want that behind-the-scenes look?
Universal's Studio Tour continues to take fans through its historic back lot, and a VIP version of the tour allows visitors to get off the tram and walk through some of Universal's sets. But some of Southern California's other movie studios are offering tours of their own, which might remind long-time fans of the old Universal tour, back in the days before USH became a Disney-style theme park.
In my Orange County Register column this week, I look at what I think might be the best of those competing tours — the Warner Bros. Studio Tour Hollywood, located just up the road from Universal Studios Hollywood, in Burbank. Warner Bros. last year revamped its tour, adding a new "Studio 48" conclusion where visitors can walk through the process of creating a film, from scriptwriting to post-production. It's a more interactive experience than riding Universal's tram, less geared at entertaining you than informing you about the process of moviemaking. Take a look.
Fans also can find studio tours at Paramount and Sony, and every once in a while, Disney opens its Burbank headquarters to D23 members for walking tours, too.
Have you visited any of Southern California's "other" studio tours? What did you think?
Tweet
I'd still like to do the Paramount Tour and of course the Disney Studios Tour. What I find most fascinating about the studio tours is to see what they're filming at the time, which makes every tour different. Many of the sound stages are in constant use, and if they're not actually filming, they're in some stage of tear-down or redress, which is interesting in and of itself to see. I also love to watch shows and commercials to see if I can figure out which backlot was used for filming (oodles of commercials are filmed on the WB lot - probably one of their most profitable ventures these days). However, with more and more TV productions moving out of LA, the backlots are seen far more during commercials than during actual programming now.
This article has been archived and is no longer accepting comments.
