California Dreamin' (Part II-Studio City)

Our second day in California we met up with some good friends, Cory and Nicki, who we got to know while they were living here in Utah.  They have since abandoned us for better weather.  Cory is a production designer and took us on a tour of his set for the ABC Family show "Greek".  Steve and I have been fascinated with Cory's work for some time-since seeing "Napoleon Dynamite" which he did the production design for as well.  He is very talented and has amazing ideas.  See Cory, we did like the tour! Nicki-you are also amazing and a wonderful mom-we love you!  The "Greek" set is actually on a rented space on the CBS studio property.  Go figure.  Anyway-it was completely fascinating.  

This first picture is of the bar which is apparently the sort of gathering place for the show.  Doesn't that patio look like it's actually outside?  Yes, it does.  The kids were loving it but got annoyed when we kept telling them not to touch things (you never know if something is real or if it is, in fact, a papier mache bench that will collapse if you sit on it).  

 

This picture is of the patio you can see from the doorway in the above pic.  Except for the fact that I got the set light in the photo, it looks amazingly real!  Yay, Cory.  

A cute pic of Will and Maggie on the set (this is when Will was still happy, this state of affairs quickly changed)
This picture is of the kitchen in the girls sorority house.  That countertop is just faux painted to look like granite.  What the!  Isn't that a good job?  This kitchen is amazing and I desire it for my own.  The girls house was my favorite part of the set.  
This, my friends, is the cutest shower curtain on the planet.  These showers work but one of them can be moved around in order to let the cameras come in.  Very clever.  Nicki and I wanted any leftover fabric to make bags but Cory said no dice-the curtains cost something like $3,000.  A bit too spendy for a bag.  
"SERENITY NOW!"  Will had had enough after being told for the millionth time that he could not touch this or that object.  He has a SERIOUS fit throwing problem.  I spoke with him about it yesterday and asked him why he does it.  He told me "sometimes a tantrum comes and it's like a little ball and it comes down and ooohh!"  Okay, I understand that (I think), so I told him when he feels it coming to tell it to go away.  It's been working today.
Here's Lizzy on the patio.  Love that patio.  This was a real bench and so we didn't run the risk of her falling through it if it got wet.
Here's the "party house".  It's where the wild fraternity guys live and it looks like a filthy pig hole!  They purposely leave it messy all the time-it was seriously disgusting.  Can you believe that's all fake, though?  Even the house.  Fake.  It's crazy!
How many out there are "Seinfeld" fans?  All of you?  That's what I thought.  This is "Central Park" on "Seinfeld".  It's true!  We sat on the bench that George sat on in his scene with Marisa Tomei.  This "Central Park" area was about 500 square feet.  It's amazing to me that these people can make this look so convincing with just a few trees and a bench.  This was very exciting for Steve and I (especially Steve) because we are huge Seinfeld fans.    
This is "Del Boca Vista".  Jerry's parents retirement condos.  The name Del Boca Vista has always cracked me up so I was thrilled beyond measure to see this.  They're just offices now but still-DEL BOCA VISTA!  
We had so much fun during our studio tour.  We even saw Rachel Hunter practicing for "Celebrity Circus" (the stupidest show ever to hit TV).  It was great to see Cory's set and some of the Seinfeld sets.  It's all just so fascinating to me (a huge television and movie addict).  Thanks Cory and Nicki for taking time to show this to us.  We also went to an observatory on the same day but this post has gotten a bit ridiculous with the amount of photos so I'll save it for later.  

By the way, I did not knit a stitch on this trip-I made a fingerless mitt on the plane ride home but it was crap so I frogged it.  I've had serious knitting anger lately because of this shell I've been working on.  I am now finished and I feel like I've been released from prison!  It's blocking right now so I'll show it soon.