In this episode, Eric takes us on a behind-the-scenes cinematic journey through his visit to the Warner Brothers studio tour in Burbank, California. He explores the connections between Disney and the iconic Hollywood studio, revealing surprising ties and shared histories. From classic movies to beloved sitcoms, Eric uncovers the Disney magic in unexpected places. Disney Parks experiences like the Great Movie Ride, and Ellen’s Energy Adventure, as well as classic movies like Dick Tracey, have ties to this iconic Studio run by one of Disney’s biggest competitors throughout the years! Join us as we delve into the enchanting world of Hollywood and Disney, and discover the synergy that unites them. Thanks for listening to Synergy Loves Company: How Disney Connects to Everything.
https://www.synergylovescompany.com
Donate to the show: https://ko-fi.com/synergylovescompany
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@synergylovescompany Twitter: https://twitter.com/EricHSynergy Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/synergylovescompany Instagram and Threads :https://www.instagram.com/synergylovescompany/
“Episode Music Music courtesy of Melodie Music melod.ie”
00:04 --> 00:06 Synergy loves company.
00:10 --> 00:53 We have this coterie of rich franchises. The company now that people want to engage with. I came here to try and continue what Walt Disney and his associates set in motion 50 years ago, which is to experiment with every new and innovative, innovative kind of entertainment possible. It's what we hope to do here to really develop something that's more than an entertainment enterprise. It's something that contributes many other ways.
01:00 --> 22:52 Synergy loves company, where we explore how Disney connects to everything. I'm Eric and thank you so much for tuning in to listen. I just got back from my first ever trip to Disneyland. It was amazing and I've just started posting some of my pictures on Instagram and I have some more to go, so check it out to see how my trip went. Our trip didn't end with Disneyland, though. We had so much more to do with our spring break time. And even though those other parts, some the trip, weren't on Disney property, I still found the Disney in all of them. So in this episode, we will set our sights on Hollywood studios. No, not Disney's Hollywood studios. We'll take a look at my visit to the Warner Brothers studio tour on the WB lot in Burbank. It's an awesome tour and a great look into how movies and tv are made. And of course, I mapped out all of the tour's connections to Disney. Before we get into my travels, though, I want to remind you that synergy Love's company is fully listener supported. No sponsors. It's just you and me. So thanks for keeping me company. And if you want to bring your support to the next level, you could donate on Ko fi. K O F I. There's a link right down there in the description. Thanks so much. All right, let's keep the show going right now. You know how we do it. Let's get to finding the Disney in everything. In 1923, just over 100 years ago, brothers banded together to start a Hollywood studio. Movie studios were popping up all around Hollywood land, but theirs would be different, more innovative. They would conquer synchronized sound. In 1927, these brothers, the Warner Brothers, released the jazz Singer, a groundbreaking talkie with synchronized music and spoken dialogue. It was a sensation that caught the movie going public in a frenzy for sound in movies not far away. And around the same time, the Disney brothers and their Walt Disney studio found themselves in a pickle. Their hit series, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit was stolen out from under them by Universal and producer Charles Mintz. Walt Disney and animator of Iwerks came up with a mouse. But could an unknown mouse really be more successful than a tried and true lucky rabbit. Okay, I know I'm in the future. Also, Walt turned to the popularity of Warner's the jazz singer to give Mickey Mouse a modern twist, synchronized sound in steamboat Willie. Chances are you've probably heard a version of that story before. It's part of the Disney history and mythology that we Disney fans love. In my version, I name dropped three different Hollywood studios who are still in Hollywood today. Disney, of course, Universal. I'm still bitter about that Oswald thing. And Warner Brothers, the sound inspiration for Steamboat Willie. Since we were traveling all the way to Southern California on our spring break trip, my family and I wanted to capture some movie magic and visit a real life movie studio. Disney, of course, would have been my first choice, but they don't offer regular studio tours like that. Universal has turned their studio tour into more of a theme park. But Warner Brothers, they have a really great studio tour that brings you through their famous backlot and onto the sets of some super popular classic movies and television shows. And if you couldn't already, guess I did find all the Disney that I could at the Warner Brothers studio. When we first arrived and got ready for our tour, it started out in a preview exhibit that was mostly screens in a giant model map of the grounds. Then we were ushered into a theater that showed off clips of movies and tv made by Warner Brothers. Stuff like Harry potter, friends, DC, superheroes, you know, stuff like that. Next, the actual tour was about to begin. We were introduced to our tour guides, broken up into smaller groups, and put on trams, just like the Disney MGM studios tram tour that I remember as a kid. In fact, this was the first time I had been on a movie studio tram tour that was not at Disney's MGM Studios. And this was an actually working studio. Okay, I know, I know. Disney's NGM studios was a working studio. This is an audio podcast. So you didn't see my air quotes on working studio, but Disney's tram tour was totally manufactured in an if you build it, they will come sort of mentality. We can make the tram tour of the studios, and then people will want to film stuff here. It was hard to get projects to film at Disney's MGM studios because there were so many theme park guests in the way. Also, being in Orlando, far away from Hollywood, didn't help it either. Warner Brothers, like Universal's Hollywood studios, had a tour added to a real working studio. The studio was super successful before anyone ever had a chance to tour it. At Warner Brothers, production always comes first, and it showed in the way that every building was designed with a certain function. For instance, our guide pointed out that some buildings that were actually executive offices looked more like motels, banks, community colleges and government buildings. And this was by design. If a movie shoot calls for a scene at a motel they can just dress up their office building for the shoot. I thought that was pretty cool. Once we got through the offices and were onto the streets of America. Well, kind of the streets of America. They didn't call them that. Not like MGM studios. But there was a New York style street and a Chicago street. Our guide, John, explained that in the early days each of the studios had their specialty. Universal did monster movies, MGM did big production musicals. But Warner was known for their gangster films. Most of Warner Brothers gangster films from the thirties and forties were filmed on the city streets and back alley sets we were driving through on the tram. One of those movies filmed on the Warner lot was the public enemy from 1931 starring James Cagney and Gene Harlow. You might remember this one from Disney's great movie ride. Early in the ride you drive through a scene from the public enemy with a Jimmy Cagney audio animatronic. And this is where a real life gangster from the scene hijacks your ride vehicle for the next parts of the ride. But the public enemy was not the only Warner Bros. Movie in the great movie ride. In fact, the first few ride scenes of the great movie ride feature Warner Brothers productions filmed at this very studio. When the great movie ride starts off in the cinematic world of the musical the first one you see was Busby Berkley's Footlight Parade, a Warner Brothers musical filmed at the Warner Brothers studio. After musicals, you go into the gangster film genre. We already talked about that. And then we venture into westerns with another Warner Bros. Produced film. The audio animatronic of John Wayne riding the horse was from the Warner Brothers western film the Searchers. And if I'm gonna talk about the great movie ride and the Warner Bros. Studio tour, I have to mention Casablanca. This movie, a classic of american cinema was prominently featured in the great movie ride. Here's looking at you, Casablanca. Some scenes were also filmed at the Warner Brothers studio. Sometimes I really miss the great movie ride but I do also really love runaway railway too. Lets get back to the Warner Bros. Studio tour. When we left the city streets of the gangster films of old we entered the famed Midwest street. The homes on the street and the town square have been used in so many movies and tv shows over the years. These Arent Disney, but fans of Gilmore girls, like we are in our household, would know this area as Stars Hollow. We had to get our picture taken on the Stars hollow gazebo. When we were in this area, our tour guide pointed out that all of the buildings had no fixtures. There were no doorknobs, no light fixtures, no mailboxes, just bare buildings. They do this so they could redress a shoot to be in any time period or to make it look different enough from project to project. So stars Hollow from the Gilmore girls can look different enough from small town in the Muppets? Yep. Disney's 2011 Muppet movie filmed scenes at the beginning of the movie to show the town where the Muppet and man brothers Walter and Gary Live. Small Town Disney's 2011 Muppet movie, filming scenes at WB Studios is kind of a nod to the 1977 Muppet movie also filming some scenes here, but Hollywood is deceiving. The Muppets filmed some of their small town scenes here at Warner Bros. But they also filmed some at Disneys Golden Oak Ranch. Production companies will rent space and use locations owned by their competition to get the settings that they need. It was at this point in the tour I had to ask a question of our tour guide. I had heard that some of WandaVision had been filmed at Warner Brothers, and I thought that it might be Midwest street, it might be downtown Westview from the show. WandaVision paid homage to so many sitcoms throughout history, and Warner Bros. Has become the place to make sitcoms. So it just made sense to me. I asked if this had been where WandaVision was filmed, but John gave me a no. He said that downtown Westview was actually Disney's Golden Oak ranch. You see, the hybrid movie magic shooting between WB and Golden Oak on the Muppets made me recognize the wrong parts of the town square when I was watching WandaVision. But what John told us next definitely made up for it. WandaVision had been filmed at Warner Brothers, but at their Warner Brothers ranch location. The residential street there had a bunch of iconic homes from tv and movies. Wanda and Vision had lived right across the street from the Griswolds, and they lived next door to the house where Samantha and Darren lived and bewitched. In fact, John, our tour guide, told us that Agatha lived in the bewitched house, and this was actually a little Easter egg that foreshadowed that she was a witch before we knew that she was Agatha all along, my mind was blown. After touring Midwest street, we drove through a couple of areas that were set dressed for filming, currently running shows. When we went through any fully dressed sets. We weren't allowed to take any pictures. One of those was ABC's Abbott elementary. Abbott has to be my favorite sitcom on tv right now. As a public school educator, I can say that they have the most accurate representation of how a school works in 2024. And it's hilarious. And because it's on ABC, it's kind of a Disney show. Sitcoms are weird. Abbott's on ABC, so it's championed by Disney, but it's produced by Warner Bros. Television. They are competitors, but in this case, they're working together. So when it does finish its run, expect to find it streaming on Macs, not Hulu or Disney. A lot of sitcoms work this way. And up next on the tour, we were going to take a look at the indoor stages where sitcoms are filmed in front of live studio audiences. Warner Bros. Has tons of sound stages and countless sitcoms have been filmed there. And a number of them have been Disney connected in the same way. Abbott elementary has links both to Warner and ABC. ABC TGIF shows like the Middle, full house, family matters, and step by step were all filmed here at Warner brothers. And all of those shows had special episodes filmed at the Disney parks. Some more sitcoms like the Drew Carey show and the Ellen show, the sitcom one were also filmed at Warner Brothers, and they had connections to Disney Parks attractions. Ellen had a shop by the book in Hollywood studios that was from her show. And Ellens energy adventure ran for so long at Epcot. Drew Carey had sounds dangerous in the Hollywood studios and a creepy caricature, animatronic and superstar limo at DCA. Both of these collaborations between sitcom actors and Disney were meant to promote those sitcoms. Even though they were produced at Warner Brothers, they aired on ABC. To go further into sitcoms, we got to visit the set of Bob Hart's Abishola, a WB production that airs on Paramount's CB's. Not very Disney, but it was kind of cool to see how those sitcoms are made. But the sound stages don't just film sitcoms. They also act as blank slate stages for shooting movies indoors. And Disney has filmed a few movies in the Warner brothers stages. But wait, Disney has their own sound stages at their Burbank studios just down the street. Why wouldn't they use their own? Well, let me tell you, there's a couple reasons why they might film in another company's stages. Number one, they might need a stage with special features. For example, Disney built its third soundstage in the early fifties to include a giant water tank for use in filming 20 leagues under the sea. If another studio needs a water scene, it would be easier to rent Disneys then build their own a lot cheaper too. Another reason they might use another studio is because theirs is unavailable because it's already being rented out and Warner Bros. Has plenty to go around. The studio has 29 different stages in various sizes. Disney's movie from 2000, the kid starring Bruce Willis and Spencer Breslin as the same character. It was one of those like get another chance at being a kid kind of movies. The reverse of big. Maybe you could think of it as they filmed some scenes for that movie at one of the Warner Bros. Sound stages. But more impressively to me and keeping with Warner Brothers history of gangster movies Disney's Dick Tracy was filmed in some of Warner Brothers sound stages. Warren Beatty had previously worked a lot with Warner and liked filming there. And I just think he liked to look at all of the WB logos on there and pretend that he owned the place, you know? WB, Warren Beatty. After visiting the soundstages, we headed to the next portion of our tour. A self guided walk through an exhibit called from script to screen. This was a really cool experience that had a lot of opportunities to take pictures on some famous sitcom sets like friends in Big Bang theory. And it also had some interactive elements highlighting special effects, sound and other productivity tricks. It of course reminded me of some Disney stuff. First, the script to screen concept and following a movie from idea to production reminded me of the reluctant Dragon, Disney's 1941 film that brings you through their production process at Disney. But the interactive elements using green screen motion capture and sound like examples of fully sound effects did remind me of early Disney MGM studios attractions like monster sound show and superstar Television. Disney's were much more interactive though this part of the tour was also all about friends because you could visit Central Perk Cafe and there was a whole friends themed gift shop with the promise that after you leave this building on another tram, you'll get to visit the Friends fountain, which I was super excited to see. The Friends Fountain, but not because of friends. We took the tram to the fountain and we were told that it had been moved from its original location at Warner Brothers Ranch, the one where WandaVision was filmed. But they moved the fountain because much of the ranch was being demolished. That's right, Westview was being demolished and sold. And I was sad to hear this because there was so much film history there. The fountain though the Friends Fountain is not just the Friends fountain, it's also the hocus pocus fountain because scenes from Disney's 1993 hocus pocus were also filmed at the Warner Brothers ranch in the same location as the friends opening sequence, but Hocus Pocus used it 1st 1993 after visiting the fountain we were finishing the tour in a final exhibit featuring Harry Potter and DC superheroes. Not very Disney, but after that we exited into a gift shop. Something so super Disney. It was a great time. Even as a super Disney fan, I found a lot to love at the Warner Brothers studio tour and I would highly recommend it to anyone visiting Burbank. I would have rather taken a tour of Disney Studios, of course I would, but they dont offer that like this. Disney is actually really close to Warner Brothers and we did get to drive by and sneak a peek past those gates at Disney Studios and dream on our way to our WB tour. Maybe one day we'll get to the Disney studio. But thanks for listening in to this episode. I loved exploring the Warner Brothers tour through the Disney lens and I still got so much more to tell you about the rest of our trip coming soon on future episodes. I also got some great guests lined up and lots more Disney to explore. So make sure you're subscribing or following in your podcast app so you don't miss an episode. And if you're enjoying exploring the world through a Disney lens with me on Synergy Loves company, there are a few ways that you can support the show. First, you could find me on social media. I'm on Instagram and threadsynergy lovescompany. Next if you know someone who loves Disney, I'd love it if you would just share this show with them. Just tell them to visit synergylovescompany.com and we could make our community grow so much bigger and more connected. That would be amazing. And remember, this show is listener supported. There's no sponsors, no ads. It's just you and me. And it takes a lot of time and a lot of resources to make an episode of Synergy Loves company. There's hours of research, recording and editing the episodes and the costs for hosting and distributing the episodes to you. So if you feel like you get value from the show and you want to give some back, you could donate to me on Ko Fi. K o f I on ko fi. You can make a donation to buy me a cup of coffee, help me keep the show hosted, and help me continue making more great episodes like this. If you look in the show description or go to synergylovescompany.com, you'll find a link to my ko fi page and you could give back to the show to help it keep going. No matter how you decide to support the show, your support means the world to me. Thanks. That's all for today. Thanks for exploring Disney's connections with me. And until next time, keep discovering the magic in everything, even the competitors like Warner brothers.