A Rare Look on the Lot of 20th Century Fox Studios!

A couple of weeks ago I wrote a post about the trip to Los Angeles I had won in a contest:  I’ve Been Away Because I Won a Trip to L.A.!

Here is a post about a little surprise that the contest prize contained.  You are probably familiar with movie studios here in the U.S. that are also theme parks.  Two that come to mind are Universal and Disney.  At these studios, you pay a fee and perhaps ride on a scary rollercoaster followed by a tour of animatronic dinosaurs ready to bite the tram you are riding in.

There is one studio that doesn’t contain any special rides or attractions.  In fact, there are no public tours available.  That studio is called, “20th Century Fox Studios”, which is considered a, “working studio”.  In other words, the movie and television writers, producers, set designers, costumers, etc. all work at this studio.

I still can’t believe it, but part of my prize was a tour of this studio!  I can’t begin to tell you what it felt like as we approached the extremely guarded front gates.  There were approximately a dozen people on the tour.  They too had won this tour as part of the prize from the contests they had won!

I am going to write a few posts about this tour, as I have pictures I really hope you will enjoy seeing! This post is a bit of an intro about the day I walked around one of the coolest places I have ever been to thus far.  I must tell you that I’m not a celebrity ‘watcher’, nor do I keep up with the latest tabloid whatever.  That doesn’t interest me in the faintest.  What does, however, is the creation of movies and television shows; you know, the ‘behind the scenes’ movie/TV magic!

The above picture is one of the ‘main’ buildings of the studio.  Founded in 1935, this studio has produced some of the most famous movies of all-time.  Star Wars (all of them!), Titanic, Home Alone, and Independence Day, are some of the highest ranking films that have ever been made.

As our group walked through this beautiful area, I truly felt as if I had been transported into another existence.  I could live here! I mean, can you imagine coming to work everyday and meandering down this beautiful, path? I could hardly contain my excitement!

Our tour group was given implicit instructions regarding the, “‘Yes you may do that”, and the, “No, you may not do that” rules for the day.  The one thing (and I completely understand why) that I can’t show you are some of the murals on the side of studio buildings.  Due to strict regulations for the artist’s who created them, we were told we could snap pictures of the artwork, but we couldn’t post them on social media.

As we began to walk around what clearly looked like a little, quaint street in an equally as quaint town, the guide informed us that we were looking at the houses where the writers collaborate and, essentially do their work each day.

Does anyone look familiar in the above photo? Do you recognize Lisa and Bart Simpson from the long-running cartoon, “The Simpsons?” There they are, on the porch, with Lisa peeking in the window to see what Ross Ritchie from, “Boom Studios” is creating today.  Boom Studios is part of 20th Century Fox; they write comic books and adaptations for television shows.  Collaborating with other talented writers and producers, Boom Studios has been involved with a massive number of projects, ranging from The Muppet Show to Planet of the Apes.

Ah, now here’s where, “The Simpsons” write their extremely witty and hilarious cartoons! (I’ve been a Simpsons fan for years; it was surreal to see a parking sign that reads, “Reserved – The Simpsons”).  If you zoom into the picture above you’ll see it too!

Now can you imagine the collaborative writing going on in this beautiful set of buildings? Keeping in mind that this studio has been in existence since 1935, I daresay that, “If those walls could talk”, I’m sure what didn’t make it to film would be just as interesting as what has appeared on the big screen.

I have a lot more to share with you!  Next post, I’ll take you ‘behind the scenes’ for some pretty cool costumes that are not on display anywhere else!