Location: Los Angeles, California, USA Address: 5515 Melrose Ave. Date: June 2019 Website:www.paramountstudiotour.com
After a successful run on the sitcom Cheers, the character of Frasier Crane was given his own show. Frasier aired for 11 seasons as did Cheers before it. We were fans of both shows.
Kelsey Grammer played the role of Frasier and didn't have far to go between jobs. Both shows were filmed at Paramount Studios and both shows were filmed on Stage 25. We took a Paramount Studio tour when we were in Los Angeles. We were able to see the exterior of this famous sound stage as well as visit a section of the backlot where one episode from the first season of Frasier was filmed.
The Paramount backlot has a section named SOHO after the New York City area. In episode six of season one, Frasier purchases a piece from an art gallery. He is embarrased when the artist comes to his party and declares the work a fraud. Frasier is angry and further frustrated when the art gallery dealer insists all sales are final. He stands on the street ready to throw a brick through the gallery window. Frasier would be standing between the bike rider and the green subway entrance in the photo above. The subway entrance was removed in order to film the scene.
A couple walks by and Frasier hides his brick behind his back. You can see the building above behind them as they cross the street. Frasier turns to throw his brick but this time his brother Niles pulls up in his car. Niles tries to calm Frasier by telling him of a time Frasier stopped him from exacting revenge. Frasier gives Niles the brick and reminds him of how stromg he was despite the nicknames, such as Peachfuzz. Niles hurls the brick through the window, tosses some money into the gallery and leaves.
"We may be barbarians, but we pay for our pillaging!"
Location: Los Angeles, California, USA Address:565 N Cahuenga Blvd. Date: June 2019 Website: www.paramountstudiotour.com
Happy Days the popular television show ran for about 10 years after first airing in 1974. It followed the life of Richie Cunningham (Ron Howard) and his friend The Fonz (Henry Winkler). The show was filmed at Paramount Studios in Los Angeles so it is not surprising that when they were looking for a home to stand in as the Cunningham residence they found one just a few streets over from the studio.
Happy Days was filmed on Stage 19 of the Paramount Studios lot. In the photo above, the red trolley is just about to pass the building.
If you take the Paramount Studios Tour, Stage 19 is located right next to the tour entrance building on Melrose Avenue.
On North Larchmont Avenue is Cafe Gratitude. After our Paramount tour we walked here for some vegan dishes. A few streets further west is North Cahuenga Blvd. The Happy Days house is located at number 565. The fictional house is supposed to be located in Millwaukee, Wisconsin at 565 North Clinton Drive. At least they got the number right.
Unlike some homes used in television or movies, this
home has not changed much in the last 40 years so it was easy to
recognize. Sunday and Monday are happy days. Tuesday and Wednesday are happy days. Thursday & Friday unfortunately appear to be garbage days.
The house was used for exterior shots during the shows run. We enjoyed our brief visit to relive some Happy Days memories with the Cunninghams and of course Fonzie living over the garage. We give it two thumbs up. "Aaaay!"
Location: Culver City, California, USA Address: 10202 Washington Blvd. Date: June 2019 Website: www.sonypicturesstudiostours.com
As part of our Sony Pictures Studio tour we were going to visit either the set of Wheel of Fortune or the set of Jeopardy! The Sony Pictures Studio Tour is a walking tour of the studio grounds. Today's set visit was Jeopardy! Contestants are given answers and then must phrase their response in the form of a question. So if the answer was "A Merv Griffin created game show that has been around since 1964". The question would be "What is Jeopardy!?"
The two game show sound stages are located right beside each other on the lot so we walked past the Wheel of Fortune stage to get to Stage 10 for Jeopardy!
Once inside we were face to face with the Jeopardy! contestants row. Everyone in our group took turns pretending that they had what it takes to answer Jeopardy! questions.
As we stepped behind the panel we could see the tablets they use to write their final answers. There are also lights at each position to let the contestants know who buzzed in first.
The photo above is of one of the buzzers in its holder.
Alex Trebek has been the host of Jeopardy! since 1984. He has had some health issues recently but is fighting to keep going and he has the support of a legion of fans.
Jeopardy! has won 33 Daytime Emmys over the years. There was a cabinet displaying the hardware.
There were other awards on display such as the Jeopardy! college championship trophy.
In 1932 this Danish company was formed making interlocking bricks for children. What is Lego? There was a Jeopardy! set made out of Lego.
There was a photo of two Mr. Ts. There was the Mr. T we know from The A-Team and the other Mr. T as in Trebek. Both men were sporting lots of gold chains.
There was a Toronto Maple Leaf Trebek jersey on display. Alex is an avid sports fan and was born in Canada. He wore this jersey during a video clue shoot.
If you have ever watched the show and wondered what Alex is writing down during the show, we now know. He has a chart of the board and he crosses out the answer once a contestant has given him the correct question.
Finally we had a chance to sit in the audience in front of the set. The front row is for a group of judges who have to decide if a question was given correctly or if something needs changing during the show. The big game board was up on the stage, but the set was dark as there was no taping that day. The answer is "We did!" The question is "Who had a good time going behind the scenes on the set of Jeopardy!?"
Location: Burbank, California, USA Address: 3400 West Riverside Drive Date: Feb 2014 Website:vipstudiotour.warnerbros.com
We have a copy of The Mask on DVD that we got for free inside a box of cereal. The movie was also a box office success and starred Jim Carrey as Stanley Ipkiss. When Stanley finds a special mask he puts it on and is transformed into... well, into Jim Carrey doing his stand-up routine.
When we visited Warner Bros. Studios, we were lucky to see some of the filming locations from this movie. The first location is found on Hennessy Street of the backlot. Stanley lives in the apartment pictured above. It is the building with Hardware written on it and fire-escapes on the front. When Stanley first puts on the mask he becomes a green faced cartoon-like character. He ends up bouncing down a hallway and out the window of this building. He is flattened when he hits the ground below. A car honks at him for being in the street. Stanley pulls out a tiny little horn which lets out one giant-sized windshield shattering " Bahooogahh!"
Later in the film Stanley is once again wearing the mask. This time he finds himself face to face with a street filled with police. The building above played the neon lit Warwick Hotel.
When faced with this predicament, The Mask breaks into song and the police are surprised to find themselves losing control and dancing along. The song he sings is Cuban Pete. This song was previously made famous by Desi Arnaz of I Love Lucy fame. All of the action takes place just beyond the dumpster you see in the middle of the road above.
At one point The Mask leaps into the air and slides down a light pole beside this theatre (right hand side of the photo above). The dance sequence continues and finishes with a conga line before The Mask sneaks off once again. Our golf cart also snuck off once again as we continued our tour of the studio.
This Easter weekend we thought it would be a good time to take a look at our top 10 bunny encounters. Here they are in no particular order.
1 )Lop-Eared Rabbit
A friend of ours used to care for a very cute lop-eared bunny. A lop-eared bunny is a bunny whose long ears hang (we guess you could say lop) down. You will notice all of the other bunnies in this blog post have ears that stand straight up or sit back on top of their heads.
2) Bugs Bunny
One of the all-time favourite bunnies is Bugs Bunny from the Looney Tunes cartoons. He is among a short list of animated characters to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The outline drawing of Bugs Bunny (above) was in the Warner Brothers Studio's Museum.
3) Flemish Giant Rabbit
From Bugs Bunny we go to Big Bunny. A Flemish giant rabbit can weigh up to 10 kg and grow to about 30 inches long. It is one of the largest domesticated rabbits. The bunny above was at the Toronto Zoo for a short time and shared an enclosure with the wombats and wallabies. Perhaps it had outgrown its previous living space.
4) Arctic Hare
While we were in Churchill, Manitoba we spotted this hare just across the road from our lodge. While it may not be the smartest thing to do in polar bear territory at night, we headed outside to try and get a closer look. Luckily, he stood still long enough for us to get the picture above. It took us some time to determine if this was an arctic hare or a snowshoe hare as both inhabit Churchill. We read about one having bigger feet or ears than the other. Some reports said that one has bigger eyes or fluffier fur. We made our determination by the black on the ears. As far as we can tell arctic hares (like this one) have black just on the top tip of their ears while snowshoe hares have a black edge that may cover the tip, but runs further along the ear as well.
5) Lionhead Rabbit
A lionhead rabbit is bred to have a mane around its face like a lion. They end up looking like little balls of fur with ears. We wondered how they can even see where they are hopping. When taking pictures, the bunny below did flash us a look from beneath all that fur just to let us know he was in there. The lionhead above is from Prickly Ball Farm and the lionhead below is from Far Enough Farm.
6) Rabbit Balloon
Artist Jeff Koons had a piece of his art appear in Toronto's Nuit Blanche 2009. It was simply named Rabbit Balloon. It featured a giant shiny silver bunny that was floating inside the Eaton Centre. This bunny also once floated in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in 2007.
7) Tortoise & Hare
In Boston's Copley Square is a sculpture of a tortoise and a hare. It was installed as a tribute to runner's of the famous Boston Marathon. It is based on the popular fable of The Tortoise & the Hare. The fable tells the story of a rabbit who was so confident in his ability to outrun the tortoise that during a race he ran ahead and took a nap. While he napped the tortoise passed by heading for the finish line. The hare finally awoke and tried to catch up, but it was too late.
8) Cute Bunnies
We think that all rabbits are cute. There is something special about a tiny bunny that you can pick up and hold in your hands while it sits quietly twitching its little nose. These cuties are from the Toronto Zoo kid's section and from Jungle Cat World.
9) Chocolate Bunnies
Chocolate shaped like eggs is good. Chocolate shaped like bunnies is good. This bunny above is a box from Teuscher Chocolates and hides a chocolate truffle in its belly. We like chocolate.
10) Eastern Cottontail
The one rabbit that we have encountered the most is the eastern cottontail. Actually we have eaten more chocolate bunnies and watched more Bugs Bunny cartoons than we have had encounters with eastern cottontails. Let's try that again. The eastern cottontail is the wild rabbit that we have encountered the most. Sometimes when you least expect it you look out into the yard and there is one munching away on something. Here comes Peter Cottontail hopping down the bunny trail!
