VIP, bitches (with or without that comma)

back on that day when the teen transitioned into the old lady, she and i celebrated by going somewhere super fun - on a tour of the warner bros. studio lot.  a warning - there are a LOT of photos coming your way.  because duh.  you've been warned.

we dropped her sister off at school, headed out to burbank, and pulled in here:

apparently, not everyone is as enthusiastic about this as we were.

never mind that.  we were in full-on tourist mode and took all the silly photos, because we could.

after going through security, we checked in and picked up our tickets.

then we browsed around the studio store and checked out some of the fun merchandise.

while i'm no harry potter fan, even i thought this was cool.  you waved this wand at your tv in different ways and it would change the channel, adjust the volume, power on and off.  but for $60 - well, we passed.

but right around the corner was this very welcome sight:

as we sipped on that magical elixir, we headed into the small theater where we were shown a short film about the history of the warner bros. studios and a reel that highlighted a bunch of the hit movies and shows that have been produced there.  we were then split up into several groups and met norman, our tour guide for the morning.

the beginning of the tour was much like the one at universal studios, only much less cheesy.  here you have your typical big-city/NYC setting:

this was the front of the hospital set for the show "ER."  i never watched it, but john stamos was in it, so i took a picture of it anyway.

just around the corner from NYC, we came upon your typical "midwestern city square" set.  i perked up when i recognized it from "hart of dixie," while the old lady squee'd a little when she realized that it doubled as the set for "pretty little liars."  "gilmore girls" was also filmed here.  if you watched "hart of dixie" like i did, you'll be picturing a gazebo that's usually in the middle there.

there was a lot of construction here, as they were rebuilding the set that had been destroyed in a previous episode of "pretty little liars."  studio heads had apparently decided that the set needed to go, and so they instructed the show's writers to add it into the storyline.

more familiar sights to fans of "pretty little liars."

two of my favorite shows have used this particular house - this is lemon's house on "hart of dixie," and it's also the home of ross and monica's parents on "friends."

remember the episode where ross was supposed to take rachel to the prom?  this is the very staircase that he was heading down only to find that rachel's date had arrived to take her after all.  awwwww.

and this is the kitchen where monica accidentally chopped off one of chandler's toes during thanksgiving.

this little strip of grass and trees doubled as central park, when rachel took phoebe jogging, only to be embarrassed by her ridiculous arm flailing.  so...i had to.

i mean, come on.  of course i had to!  and even norman got a chuckle out of my antics.

i had to do this, too.

it was really interesting to see what movies and shows were filmed at the various soundstages.  most of them had plaques like this one:

we love the ellen show!  alas, she was not there that morning.

john stamos was here, too.

the old lady silently freaked out a little when we passed this soundstage where "pretty little liars" was currently filming and recognized one of the cast members on her phone.  don't ask me which one, because i have no idea.

our next stop had my name allllllll over it.  i'm sure you can guess what was behind that door:

oh, you know, just a little indie coffee house you may have seen before.

 smelly cat, smelly cat...come on, everybody!

yes.  oh yes, i was super excited.  i'm a dork, i know it.  and i'm okay with that.

when they finally dragged me out of central perk, we checked out the batman exhibit.

 hey, conan!  alas, he wasn't there either.

the museum was featuring a 75 years of batman exhibit on the lower level and a plethora of harry potter props upstairs.  again, i'm no big fan of either of these, but it was fun to look at everything anyway.

 back in the tram, we got a nice view of the famous water tower.

can i give you just one more bit of "friends"?  this is the alleyway where rachel tried to talk monica into introducing herself to jean claude van damme and ended up going out on a date with him herself.

that's the fire escape where annie and the rest of the orphans sang "it's a hard knock life" - in the original movie, of course.  you know, the one that counts.

back in the studio store, the old lady and i giggled over the super cheesetastic green screen photo we'd taken back in the batmobile exhibit.

we checked out the merchandise from the ellen show, but ultimately decided against any of it because it seemed wrong to have any of it and not have actually been in the studio audience.

instead, i chose a central perk t-shirt while she opted for a "pretty little liars" one, and then we were all done.

and since we were in the area, we stopped for some delicious cuban sandwiches, potato balls, and cheese rolls.

we even had time to go home and eat before heading back out to pick up the bean from school.  and later that evening, we found out that the hub has a friend who works for WB and can comp us tickets for another visit to the lot.  heh.  maybe we'll go back again in the fall, after most of the shows are off hiatus and come back to film new episodes.

i mean, you know.  when have you ever known me to pass up a chance to possibly do some celeb spotting?  um, like never.