Review of Warner Bros. Studio Tour Hollywood’s six-hour Deluxe Tour
Warner Bros. Studio Tour Hollywood has been taking visitors onto the historic Warner Bros. lot in Burbank, Calif. for decades. If your love of behind-the-scenes Hollywood goes beyond that of a casual tourist, the Deluxe Tour offers an approximately six-hour experience taking you places no other tour does.
Arrival
You’ll begin your Deluxe Tour just like the rest, in a gallery of sorts with scaled-down soundstage replicas along with the iconic WB Water Tower. Adorning the walls are fun facts, photos, and monitors showcasing clips from Warner Bros. classic movies, television, animation, and more.
Tip: Be sure to arrive for your tour a bit early so you can enjoy what this preview room has to offer as well as soak in some WB history, making what you’ll experience even more special.
Also hanging in this preview room is a monitor displaying the various soundstage numbers and showcasing which production is currently using each stage. You may be surprised to find one of your favorite TV series shooting on the lot the day you visit.
Tip: If you are someone seeking production action while you’re on the lot, you should consider visiting Monday through Friday as production is often not working on weekends.
When it’s time for your Deluxe Tour to begin, you’ll be brought into a separate waiting room stocked with breakfast pastries, snacks, coffee, and other drinks to enjoy while you wait. As tempting as it may be to visit Starbucks in the tour lobby before checking in, hold off, as you’ll have plenty of food offerings included throughout this tour.
Our Deluxe Tour Guide, Scott, came into our waiting room while we were enjoying breakfast simply to introduce himself and give us a rundown how the day would go. He then left us to enjoy the food and get to know our fellow tour guests a bit.
Afterward, Deluxe Tour guests were brought into a screening room with extra comfy chairs to enjoy a film montage and welcome video. After the film montage finished, our Tour Guide Scott rejoined as we hopped aboard his oversized golf cart to begin our ride around the working studio lot.
The backlot
As we ventured onto the backlot, our first stop was Park Place. Although we’re exploring the same backlot the other tours do, one of the best parts of this Deluxe version of the Warner Bros. Studio Tour is how we never felt rushed given the ample time. Our guide was sure to ask what interested us most and he tailored the tour to our interests.
We then walked through one of the building façades on Park Place and exited through the other side of the building onto Hennessy Streetwhere many of the gangster movies of yesteryear were shot. Although many of the backlot sets we visited were built decades earlier, they’re still used regularly today on current productions. You’re literally walking in the footsteps of old time Hollywood while also walking onto modern day history.
After hopping back on our golf cart, we took a short ride over to the New York Street backlot where we drove by standing sets from the hit series “Abbott Elementary.” While there, we saw a bit of production happening as the Apple TV+ series “Shrinking,” starring Harrison Ford and Jason Segel, was wrapping up some work for the day.
Deluxe Tour exclusives: Costuming and props
As we ventured away from the backlot and onto the front lot where the soundstages stand, we went to a rare treat available only to Deluxe Tour guests of the Warner Bros. Studio Tour Hollywood: We visited the active Costume Department, where you’ll find many thousands of pieces of clothing, shoes, hats, and more. This 60,000-square-foot facility has any kind of wardrobe that productions could need, including historical, sci-fi, fantasy, modern-day, and so much more.
The Property Department is another location the main Studio Tour doesn’t visit but Deluxe Tour guests can. Inside this 200,000-square-foot facility, they have every kind of prop imaginable. During our walk through the Property Department, we came across a historic chair from the 1939 Bette Davis and Errol Flynn starring movie “The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex” as well as more modern props from “American Horror Story” and beyond. Whether it’s a tiny teacup or a large piece of furniture, if an actor needs a prop, it can most likely be found in this expansive facility.
Visiting soundstages on the Warner Bros. Studio Tour
We then stepped into a working soundstage on the front lot. Each of the soundstages has a plaque hanging outside listing some of the more notable productions to shoot inside. In special circumstances, certain stages are adorned with a plaque, naming it after a particular hit series that shot inside. Stage 24 at Warner Bros. is named the “Friends” stage after the worldwide phenomenon sitcom.
We went inside soundstage 10, home to the current sitcom reboot “Night Court.” This is a multi-camera sitcom which shoots in front of a live studio audience. We had the stage to ourselves as our guide described how a multi-cam sitcom works.
The multi-cam way of shooting began all the way back with “I Love Lucy.” Although this style of shooting has had its ebbs and flows, there are always some series shooting in this fashion. Warner Bros. Studios has been the production home for many of them throughout the years, including hits like “The Big Bang Theory,” “Everybody Loves Raymond,” and the aforementioned “Friends.”
Lunch with celebrity sightings
After the first half of our tour, we stopped at the Warner Bros. Commissary fine dining room for lunch. This full-service restaurant is a special treat, as even most people who work on the studio lot don’t dine inside. While there, you may even dine among the stars. On our tour, Marilu Henner from the sitcom “Taxi” and Chuck Lorre who created “Two and a Half Men” and many other sitcoms was having a lunch meeting at the table next to us. Of course, this sort of surprise isn’t a guarantee on every tour. But it’s also not uncommon when at fine dining.
The meal included with the cost of your tour begins with soup or salad, bread for the table, an entrée of your choice, dessert, and a drink. As our Tour Guide Scott dined with us, this was the perfect time to hear more about his experiences at Warner Bros. and beyond as well as pick his brain. There was certainly no lack of food or good conversation.
The Rose Garden, The Jungle, and Midwest Street
After lunch our tour group walked over to the Rose Garden, which is an area now surrounded by top executive offices at Warner Bros. Studios. During the golden age of Hollywood, these spaces would be used for the studio’s top stars. Once again, there’s history around every corner of Warner Bros. Studios.
We continued our tour riding through The Jungle backlot where the classic TV series “The Waltons” as well as the blockbuster movie “Jurassic Park” shot scenes. Beyond The Jungle, Warner Village showcases a street of homes used for exterior shooting while doubling as production offices inside.
My favorite area on the lot is Midwest Street, where the classic movie musical “The Music Man” was shot as this space represented River City, Iowa. This is also the town “The Gremlins” terrorized in the 1980s, and more recently this small town was used as centerpiece locations for “Gilmore Girls,” “Pretty Little Liars,” “Hart of Dixie,” and so much more.
Unlike a lot of other backlot areas we visited, some of the buildings in Midwest Street have practical sets inside used for production. Most backlot buildings are empty shells inside, but not on Midwest Street and its adjoining Kings Row. This allowed us to step inside and compare the drastic difference between shooting inside a backlot façade versus a controlled soundstage as we had witnessed earlier.
Stage 48: Script to Screen
At this point, it was time to say goodbye to Tour Guide Scott, but our Warner Bros. Deluxe Tour experience was far from over. We were dropped off at Stage 48: Script to Screen, a self-guided portion of the tour that walks you through the entire production process.
In there, you’ll experience interactive displays showcasing the production process as well as screen-used costumes props and sets. There are photo ops featuring actual sets from “The Big Bang Theory” which you can walk onto for photos. The same goes for the iconic Central Perk set from the sitcom “Friends.” Here, you can sit on the well-worn couch and pose for a photo.
There’s no doubt about it. “Friends” fandom has reached every corner of the world, and the Warner Bros. Studio Tour has plenty of “Friends” content for guests to enjoy. In fact, the finale of Stage 48: Script to Screen is a boutique with merchandise and displays entirely dedicated to “Friends,” plus a Central Perk café. With the Deluxe Tour, you get coupons giving you even more food with a treat and drink from Central Perk.
You can take as little or as much time at this experience as you’d like. Whenever you’re ready to move on, you’ll hop aboard another golf cart to continue your journey. Yes, there’s more.
Action and Magic Made Here
Our next stop was the “Friends” fountain seen during the opening credits of the series. This is the actual fountain where the cast of the show danced and splashed. This piece of television history was moved from the now-defunct Warner Bros. Ranch to its new home on the main lot in order to save it from destruction so guests can enjoy it for years to come.
The final stop on the tour is called Action and Magic Made Here. This interactive museum has many costumes and photo opportunities featuring favorite DC Comics heroes, villains, and picture cars, including a collection of Batman vehicles. There are also numerous Harry Potter photo ops for fans of the Boy Who Lived. The final room is one dedicated to the many awards Warner Bros. has won over the years. You may even have the chance to hold an actual Oscar for one last photo opportunity. Action and Magic Made Here is go-at-your-own-pace as well, so you can take as little or as much time as you’d like.
Warner Bros. Studio Store
Your tour exits into the Warner Bros. Studio Store, offering a plethora of merchandise featuring hit WB television series, movies, and studio history. A lot of the merchandise in this store and the previously mentioned “Friends” boutique is unique to this experience and cannot be found anywhere else. You’re sure to find the perfect keepsake to keep the memories of your experience alive long after your visit to Hollywood.
Warner Bros. Studio Tour Hollywood: Deluxe Tour overall thoughts
Overall, the Deluxe Tour at Warner Bros. Studio Tour Hollywood is an all-encompassing experience for entertainment mega-fans and those interested in the way our favorites shows and movies are made. It offers a number of unique experiences exclusive to Deluxe Tour guests and comes with more than enough food included in the cost of your tour.
The over six-hour experience costs $330 per person with a limited number of tours going out only in the morning given its length. With the limited space on this tour, it is highly recommended to book in advance at the Warner Bros. Studio Tour website.
If you’d still like to experience the Warner Bros. Studio Tour but the Deluxe Tour sounds a bit much for you, there are several other options available, including the standard Studio Tour, TCM Classic Films Tour, and Studio Tour Plus. Learn about all of the options available at WBStudioTour.com.
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