Hos N Bros

Hos N Bros
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Sunday, February 21, 2010

The Chuck-ed Out WB Tour




For anyone who doesn’t know, the WB offers a tour that you can take around the lot to see the sets and behind-the-scenes of their shows. This Friday a few of us Chuck fans went on that tour- Chuck style.



The starting point of the tour was at the WB Store (which definitely has some cool swag) where you get to watch about a 10-minute inspirational video about why the WB is the best. To give the video some credit it did show Chuck twice (we tried to take a picture but it snapped one of Ellen instead. Not that that’s a bad thing, Yvonne on Ellen right?) and it even had the inspirational music to go along with it. However, we weren’t there for the WB, we were there for Chuck. Our tour guide Amanda, who was seriously awesome and a big Chuck fan herself, thankfully knew this.

The first stop of the day was the WB museum, which housed costumes and props from various shows and movies. They had one Chuck costume which was the nerd herd outfit worn by Zac (yes, Zac not Zach) himself complete with the Chucks and Nerd Herd ID. Next stop, the actual tour!

We first got to visit the Courtyard/Apartment Set, which was surreal. I mean to stand outside the Morgan Door, who wouldn’t want that? We couldn’t really go into the apartments as they were setting up for filming later but we did get to peek around a bit. I will say the set is pretty big and the apartments look gorgeous (well all but Casey’s which is literally a room and a recliner) as they are completely furnished and are filled with little pictures and things I found I often missed when watching the show. I think the real highlight was seeing Chuck’s room and although we couldn’t actually sit on the bed (sad and unfortunate I know) it was crazy just being a few feet away from it. Let’s hope that bed gets some use later in the season… yeah I said it.

Also in the same stage was the set of “The Cage,” and I can only imagine how much fun it is to film all the scenes that happen there. I mean I’d pay to see the Buy More Fight Club any day of the week.

The Buy More set was HUGE as it literally is a furnished store from games to DVDs to actual electronics. There was one particular thing that stood out on the set for us but as of right now, my lips are sealed. Some cool little aspects were the customer services cards which included names of some the crew as well as the fact that the stuff put out in the front of the store are often movies and projects the crew has worked on. I was jokingly dared to try to get from the Home Theater room to the Castle via the trap door but I didn’t want to get booted from the tour… and there is no real trap door. That could’ve been a problem as well.

Next on the tour we took a trip around the WB lot seeing various buildings used for the show as well as swinging by the set where some filming was being done to try to see if we could see some of the cast. Here is some of the things we saw (photos courtesy of Ivy):


Nerd Herd


Served as the Chinese Embassy (or if you are a Pushing Daisies fan it was the morgue)


The building where Isla "died" crushing Sugar Bear's heart

Also as we looped around the WB lot we did spot of few of the cast. We saw our favorite Buy More manager Big Mike (Mark Christopher Lawrence) twice and spotted Lester (Vik Sahay) and the General (Bonita Friedericy) herself! I have to say Bonita is adorable and much cuter in real life than on the show.



We also took a tour of the Jungle where stuff like Jurassic Park was filmed and for any True Blood fans that is where the lake is. Scenes like Casey’s training in “Sensei” and Sarah getting the stash of money in the flashback in “Cougars” were also filmed there. Also a scene involving another character from Chuck was recently filmed there, but again my lips are sealed.



We made a stop by the old Gilmore Girls town as Chuck recently did an episode there. I will say the episode takes place somewhere awesome and let's just say I'm really looking forward to a scene that was filmed in same place as the picture above described by our guide involving... well I guess you'll find out.



We wrapped up the tour very fittingly by going to the building that serves as the back to the Buy More. This is the place where our Wilson Phillips loving manager bit the dust in one of the darker yet awesome scenes of the show. To get there required some tricky maneuvering of the cart into the Executive Lot and even more skill to get out of there. To anyone wondering, doing donuts in the Exec. Lot may seem crazy but it is a whole lot of fun.

Overall I learned two main things from this tour. One of them is that it takes a whole lot of people to make the show possible. When I watch the show I’m pulled into the world of Chuck and I forget that it is TV. However, seeing the behind-the-scenes makes me realize how much effort is needed to make that magic transition from fake to reality so smooth. We often give credit to the actors and writers of the show but I seriously want to give it up for everyone else who makes the show possible. It literally takes everyone to make Chuck what it is and as a fan I seriously appreciate all the hard work.

The second thing I learned is that is it always fun to hang out with other Chuck fans. A few of us went out after the tour to eat and just had fun. It is great knowing that everyone there loves the show as much as you do and barring a few people (boycott boy) I think Chuck fans are some of the greatest. If you ever have a chance to go to a fan event, I promise you won’t be disappointed.


Other Stuff Learned:

- There is no smoking on the tour. And before you ask, yes I knew this and no that fact didn’t bother me. However, someone *coughIvycough* felt the need to make a joke how surviving 2 hours without a cigarette would be a great feat for me. That resulted in the tour guide letting me know it was going to be okay and it was just 2 hours. Thanks for that :)

- All the trams look alike. I learned this when walking to a tram only to find that everyone else in the group was going a different direction. Fortunately I wasn’t left behind

- It is infinitely better to be sorted (by Sorting Hat from Harry Potter… as if you didn’t know) into Gryffindor than Slytherin or even Hufflepuff, and anyone who tries to disagree is just in denial.


So there you have it. In sum the tour was a great experience for any fan of the show and I highly recommend doing it if you get the chance, especially with other fans. Hope I didn’t miss anything important and please excuse any mistakes in this recap as there are bound to be many. Please feel free to add your own experiences if you’ve ever been on a tour and if you haven’t had the pleasure but want to go one in the future, another one is being planned.

Thanks again to Amanda for being an excellent guide and the WB Tours in general. Also to everyone who went on the tour, I hope you had as much fun as I did.

7 comments:

  1. I loved the recap, great summary, it has to be so hard to summarize something so awesome to just a few paragraphs, but you did that well. I cant wait for future episodes and I have to agree chuck fans are the best, even If I only know that by twitter and haven't had the pleasure of meeting anyone in person:)

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  2. That was a nice write-up. We had fun on our tour too but I think perhaps yours was better. You got to see three of the stars while we only got to see some of the wardrobe they all wear LOL. They really keep those nerd herd cars shiny huh? Did you get to see Zac's car by his trailer with that personalized lic plate? ;)

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  3. We only got to see his Nerd Herd cart but didn't see the car and license plate. Maybe next time though :)

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  4. I finally got around to reading this, which I find extremely strange on my part... Anyway, I dug it a bunch. Sincerely. Gosh, I wish I was there.

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  5. That sounds awesome! On holiday this summer, I went on the Universal Studios Hollywood Tour, and I now really regret not going over to WB, but (ashamed as I am to admit it) I only really got obsessively into Chuck for the second season, which aired in late August here in the UK :(

    How did you find out about a specifically Chuck-themed tour?

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  6. THANK YOU FOR THIS POST! I am a rabid Chuck fan and also totally loved Pushing Daisies...and after repeatedly watching the seasons of both, I found myself thinking (during the Sizzling Shrimp episode of Chuck) "Hey! I think that's the morgue from Pushing Daisies!" I honestly didn't know if I'd ever find out if I was right...and here's your awesome post (and awesome blog) to give me the scoop. THANK YOU! I can't believe I noticed this just from watching the shows...maybe I've seen all the seasons of both shows too many times? :)

    Viva BuyMoria!

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  7. Thank you for sharing this amazing tour, it was very interesting for me :)
    But why didn't you took pictures..why only the Nerd Herder ? I'd love to see some behind the scenes shots .

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