Podcast: The Ride - Universal Backlot Sets with Steve Szlaga

Episode Date: September 19, 2025

PTR is ready for it's close-up Mr. Demille!**(Hilarious reference to famous Hollywood film "Sunset Blvd")Current Universal team member Steve Szlaga joins the boys to talk about the famous film sets on the Universal Tram Tour. Tickets for Scott Performs The 2006 Universal Tour at Dynasty Typewriter available here:https://www.squadup.com/hosts/7408591/eventsFOLLOW PODCAST: THE RIDE:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://twitter.com/PodcastTheRide⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/podcasttheride⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠BUY PODCAST: THE RIDE MERCH:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.teepublic.com/stores/podcast-the-ride⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠PODCAST THE RIDE IS A FOREVER DOG PODCAST⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://foreverdogpodcasts.com/podcasts/podcast-the-ride⁠See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Folks, do you want to see Podcasts the Ride Live? Are you going to be in Los Angeles on September 28th at 4 p.m. Pacific Time? Well, if you are, you are in luck because we're doing a very special show at Dynasty Typewriter. Yes, Scott is going to perform the 2006 Universal Tour, the finale of September. Yes, he's going to do the actual Universal Backlot Tour spiel that he did as a real job about 20 years ago. It's going to be very exciting. There's going to be fun. There's going to be surprises you will see.

Now, if you're not going to be in Los Angeles, we are doing a live stream. You can buy tickets on the Dynasty Typewriter website for the live stream and then stream to whatever device you want, TV, phone, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. So just to remind everyone, Sunday, September 28th at 4 p.m. Pacific time, the live show, come to see it in person or watch it home. And then you'll find the link to buy tickets on our social media. description of this podcast or just go to the dynasty typewriter website and go to the 28th. There's a link there.

You'll figure it out your smart people. So remember, Scott is performing the 2006 Universal Tour live and it's coming up soon. Forever! Warning. The following podcast may hit harder if you quickly binge all eight seasons of Desperate Housewives. It may contain tour guide contempt for face. people, and unorthodox uses of Dancing Queen. From Courthouse Square to Little Europe to Wisteria Lane, we discuss Universal's historic

backlots sets with current Universal team member Steve Slaga on podcast The Ride. Okay, Jason, can you give me a number between 7 and 240? 21. Okay, so using the tour guide art of the segue, and, of course, the clunk of the manual, studio guide manual, has come out. I'm going to segue. I'm going to try to do an opening joke here

that stems perfectly from Wait, did you say 21? Lucky 21, yeah. Okay, great. So let's see if I can open the show. This is a magic trick. Well, it could very well not be. It could be a bad magic trick.

But I like that it's a randomizer, you know? Like here are all these loose crumpled green sheets of paper. Hopefully the joke is still is okay. It's not like an offensive joke because it's so like 15 years ago. I don't think it would be, but it's possible. Okay, well, see, this is a weird one a little bit because we've, okay, all right, welcome to podcast The Ride Subtramber, a month-long tribute to the World Famous Universal Studios tour that where conversations sometimes veers into areas even more dangerous than hovering over the wreckage of a crushed L train. What you sent me to was the script for King Kong, which we did cover in a previous episode. But you know what, as a, you never know where you're going to land.

And, you know, sometimes you land right in the middle of an attraction. I was almost hoping for here, let me introduce. All right, I'm Scott Gardner. I'm your guide this month. Mike, give me a number too. I want to see if I, give me like a later number. 69. 69.

I just want to see if I can get into just a, like, dry ass. Something that's very, like, clinical, like almost. Am I missing 69? Wait, how feet? Wait, wait. Is it like a hotel? Go later. Give me 100s.

169. 169. Okay, great. Is it like a hotel, though, where they don't have a 13th floor, they don't have a 69 in there because people would laugh too much? Oh, I'm not sure. Yeah, yeah. Well, you know, you get that job when you're young and you get it when you've got a perverted

sense of humor. Right. And then all the guides starting to get them together and now they don't respect the program anymore. So yeah, so maybe that is not even in there. You can't have those two numbers together. People go insane. Mike Carlson, who sometimes his theme park opinions can veer a little bit. bit negative. Did you know that the negative has to be cut and spliced to approve with the final

cut? When this is completed, the next step is to correct any scenes where color and density do not match. Finally, once printed, that's how you have a final feature film. Okay. I mean, it's a joke it might not work so well, but is this exercise, I think it's great. You don't think everybody's laughing at that? I don't know. They might be laughing at it. I'm just saying maybe is a film negative. Out of the context of the show, maybe it doesn't work. I think it's great. It's great. joke, like film industry joke. Oh, well, Jason, then Jason Sheridan, who should provide his own.

Huh? Oh, wait. Oh, I thought you were saying you have a separate one. No, I wasn't. I'm saying, I like the negative joke. I thought that was a good film negative reference. Okay, great, great. Okay, then that was an approval of a joke, not a new joke. But this is great, Matisse. See how this book is the gift that keeps on tipping. You should bring that out at holidays and parties in your personal life. I think so. Well, look, I'm going to have generations of children entertain.

I'll end up with, you know, I'll have a bunch of six-year-olds in my house. I'll have a bunch of teenagers at my house someday. And they all need to learn about the good German. You got to learn about the good German someday. You got to know that after the odd couple finished shooting, they used the same apartment, modified it, to shoot Leverne and Shirley. Well, I do like to know that. Yeah, that is a thing you would tell teenagers about that. Yeah, for sure.

Well, you know, we'll see if we end up diving into this thing. And I'm excited to be flashing, you know, this big old binder, this might not even make sense to our guest today who is current and of the cutting edge of the universal tour guide industry. You know, this whole, this series, we've been lucky to have a couple of alumni of the tour guide program. But how about this today, a current modern, as you said, a modern member of the tour guide family. So excited he's joining us. Steve Slaga is here. I should have brought my binder. So it is still a binder.

It's not all on ships. It's still a binder. I'm still with the company, so maybe I shouldn't have, because I guess that would be proprietary information. Oh, right. Still is for me. I'll go out on a, I'll take a risk, and I'll tell you it's purple now. It's now a purple binder.

Whoa. That's crazy. And I can also tell you, I have never once, in 10 years of giving a tour, ever mentioned the word negatives or splicing or any of that. Isn't that a dater that I went to it by the age of physical film.

They got in the film of scotch tape and scissors. SD cards and, you know, HD masters and that sort of thing. Mike and I actually asked Steve here today to come collect your buyer. Oh, no. That is the property. No, please.

I want a little material for the rest of the series. No, Steve. He's been deputized by Universal Studios To take you It's a good thing I didn't bring my uniform Because there's no way You're gonna have to break it to my house For me to give that thing back

I think that's probably two uniforms old now Oh yeah yeah Would have no use to anyone Yeah it's a little less I took the tour a couple weeks ago And it's a little less What's the word like Plain and deeply asexual

It was sort of punishingly kind of salting cracker of the vibe. And, but I don't know, I don't know, I'm not sure exactly what you're wearing these days. Yeah, they just got a little more pizzazz. It's got a little more pattern to it. Yeah. It's a celebration of the 60th. So we, we freshened up a little bit.

Oh, yeah. You got to be there, there's, that's like a whole, you know, like this, there's probably a version of this celebration of the tour that we did in this, before the 60th anniversary when they celebrated it. But we wanted to give them their space, you know, let them, you know, or let you guys do it, your way. Test the water. See what worked.

See what didn't work. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So then you can come in and, yeah, absolutely. But how was this? So was there a nice like amount of refreshing in the, yeah. Well, actually the, the 60th was a lot about the like honoring the history of the tour. So a lot of the things that were playing was, you know, kind of like, this is where Battlestar Galactica used to be.

This is where the house that used to be on fire used to be. And I believe that's where the fire station is now is where the house on fire used to be. I could be completely wrong. No, I think that's what it is in my head. Because that's a funny little, it was the house on fire, and now it is the fire department. Those old janky attractions, and I think we're going to do that on the second gate,

some of the old janky things. Is there anything that you didn't get to do that was long gone by the time you got there that you sort of wish was still in the running? When I started, I had been on, because I'd been to Florida, and I'd been on Kongfrontation in Orlando, and I'd been on the Kong.

attraction on the studio tour but when I started in 2013 that Kong was gone so we had moved on to the King Kong 363D directed by Peter Jackson. Excellent full branding that's all right you're respecting the current company like I'm not sure what exactly happened on the lot that caused a a change of King Kong's I'm trying to recall yes no well just a desire to update to digital way Yeah, some sort of natural, natural upheaval. No, there was, unfortunately, a fire, and we lost that King Kong, but we got King Kong 363D. But, you know, you can't beat a giant animatronic.

Yeah. King Kong with banana breath and a Santa hat at Christmas time. Yeah, so we discussed this. This is what I think what we're coming right out of is that one, and we gushed over. We got for a two-minute experience we talked about for four hours or something. I mean, that was, you know, it was probably my favorite thing to get to do there and our guest, David, as well. While respecting the company party line, what would you say to someone in this room who is 100% positive that the fire was started by the company in an effort to move along the technology and create a new experience? Yeah, Flander, your current employer.

Oh, absolutely. Well, you know, Southern California is a notoriously cool and wet. climate. So when fires get started, we're always shocked. We wouldn't expect them here. We wouldn't expect them to happen on a back lot around facades that are made entirely of old dry wood.

In the 1930s. Exactly. We wouldn't expect 100-year-old rotting wood to be as flammable as it was. But yeah, so I'm of the mind that it wasn't an inside job, but also I can't push that too hard, or you

will think that I'm a plant and that I did come here to get that binder. And I'm not here for that binder. Okay, okay. If you see me eyeing it, it's just because, you know, it's the most colorful thing in the room. Oh, sure, sure. Because I'm trying to figure out how to get across or under the table and return it to it. Steve, these are going to be the most careful bathroom breaks that ever occur. Like, if we take a pause, no breaks. When we're saying goodbye to you today. Yeah, I'm not looking you in the eye to say thanks for doing the show. There's a, there's a cave underneath the studio tour

and there's an altar on it and there's a rock on the altar. That binder is supposed to be on the altar. Everything's been amiss. So I have to move the rock and put that back. Otherwise, yeah. It's going to cause a future fire if it's not back in its rightful place.

And that's what happened to the Fast and Furious. Supercharged. Oh, wow. Well, I'm not going to feel too bad about that one. If that binder's not back on the altar, the altar can't sink into the ground and then they can't do the promotional tour for wicked.

Wicked for good. Wicked for good. Thank you. Thank you. Very excited. Wicked too. Yeah, right. Let me say, I'm so happy, Steve, that you're here and willing to talk with us, you know, despite

being currently under the employee of the organization, I want to offer you something, which is that if we veer into a territory that you don't want to comment on or something that, you know, sure, later you could email us and say, oh, could you cut that, or we could deal with it right now. So I thought if we, maybe we could develop a safe word. If we're veering into an area that you're not comfortable with. I've got one. Oh, great, right, perfect.

Wigwag light. Wigwag light. Because if you see a wigwag light, you have to be quiet. I don't know this. I don't know this phrase. You gave tours, you have that binder and you don't know about a wigwag light. I don't know wigwag light. Is it say it?

I mean, there's no way to quick search. It's a quick search. Well, it's not in the, it's not a film terminology. Zoom in. Is there an index? All I got is wipes and work prints. Oh, no. I've never talked about a work print.

I don't know wig. I don't know wigwag light. We come from different worlds. Outside, the next of the door on the sound stage it has that red light that flashes. That's called a wigwag light. So when they're filming, then the wigwag light's going off. So a tour guide knows to be quiet because they don't want to interrupt the filming. Because soundstages are not 100% soundproof.

Right. Right. It comes that close. But in the margin of error. So, you know, if you're out there. on a bullhorn or a dump truck or something you'd see a wigwag light, you've got to be respectful. You've got to be respectful of the folks at Superstore

and ballet. Right, right, yes, indeed. They could lose Mark Helgaberger's lines in CSI or the CSI reboot. Is that right? Is that happening? Did I imagine that? Oh, I have no idea.

In my time, it was Mark Helgenberger and William Peterson. Is that the name of someone? And I started, it was Ted Danson and Elizabeth's shoe. Wow. And then one time, it was still there. still in the lot, but the cast of change. Yes.

Okay. And then right across the street was stage 29, which used to be the Phantom of the Opera Soundstage. Right. And so one time, I was new and I was still trying to be funny. And I said, CSI starring Ted Danson and Elizabeth Shoe. Now let's take our dancing and shoes to the theater at stage 29, where Fan of the Opera was.

And it's the first time anyone laughed at it. I'm a fan. Yeah, I like it. Yeah. Yeah, I was trying to have fun, but... A good little torture. A good, a little good long walk. And now that Super Nintendo World stage is four sound stages.

I've been saying that that is strange. The haunted land. We cannot touch the haunted land, but we got to ride. Never mind. You're out. You're out. You're gone. I, you know, by the way, just to say it early in the episode,

well, we're kind of covering today here. You know, we've talked about, you know, the attractions, you know, the kind of, you know, the gags, the experiences on the tour. Things were... And we're stuff at animations. Great. Inside terminology. But today's going to be sort of about the back lot sets, the studio itself, the proud

filming history, all of the different locales that, you know, give the international flavor to the back lot. And, you know, the old studios you grew up with to the blockbusters of today, many of them filmed on that 450 acres of land. Man, I love how well you're able to spit the stuff. Jeez. It's like we're getting the VIP tour. Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

In this sound, in this recording room, the rest of the world is just around the corner. Oh, man, these little pearls that I, but let's back it up to you because I, Mike and I together, I believe, took a tour of yours a long time ago now. Yes. Which is probably, I don't know, maybe 2015, 2016. Have you been there that long? 2013. 2013. What was the beginning of your universal journey?

Well, I was in the process of auditioning to be a Universal tour guide and interviewing to be a Warner Brothers tour guide. I had my final interview for Universal. It went really well. And then as I was on my way home, Universal called me. I had my final Warner Brothers the next day and Universal called me and offered me. And I just thought, you know what? I think I'm going to take Universal because, one, I had applied for Warner Brothers five years earlier and they ghosted me.

So I didn't want to give them the chance. And also, two, Universal has a shark attack and an earthquake and King Kong. And at the time I thought, well, that'd be really fun to go through those over and over again, day after day. And it is. And it is. To a point. Yeah. To a point.

I guess to that end, I guess I'm skipping way ahead in your universal journey, you were saying that you have not, you have not been. out doing the tour in the recent past. Right, yeah, I didn't get to participate in the 60th anniversary, which was really fun because people got to get off the tram and walk around the Bates Motel. Wow, wow. Yeah. So, yeah, it's been a little bit. I used to do the terror tram also, I guess it is, except Tramber, and it's, you know,

Halloween is going strong. It can't. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, it's all, those meld into each other perfectly. What I remember most about my first weekend was Fast and Furious What was it called? The Tokyo, the Fast and Furious Extreme Closeup

Yes, with dancing cars. Its last weekend was my first. Wow. Oh, really? Yeah, wow. So you got like one time doing that? Literally one time because I never did it during training and so it was there and then she wasn't.

Oh, so you got the joys of like and, hey, how about a hand for carnage and karma? everybody oh man i love the dancing cars yes gasoline yes the official we call i call that the official yeah song of city walk like we did the first citywalk saga any time i went up there to check stop out it was gasoline oh yeah was so pretty new so was blaring everywhere yeah and by pretty new you mean 12 years old uh new in theme park uh turn out no no no i know it probably come out of year or two books. The grading on a curve as you. But that's

a solid amount of time. Yeah, yeah. I've seen things come and go. I've seen the mummy tunnel. Yes, yes. Mummy tunnel that was before that it was from the what's it, six million dollar man something. Yes, yeah, yeah. We talked

about that on the Patreon and about how I always would show that clip because what a funny hokey little fight with a with a big foot. Really funny scene. I love that they tried to like to turn that premise into it's an avalanche it's lava and it's a tomb a revolving tomb what do you mean for a few really special Christmases it was a Grinch Tunnel I don't know this this is new to me really wow did you were you ever there when they did the the the Whoville song and dance yeah yeah I was and I've maybe mentioned that on the show before because I was not trained in that and I

didn't know it was going to happen so I was saying some boring thing about like it took over it was with these six football fields worth of snow. Well, welcome me. And then a musical number started. What was that? You weren't talking about how the next stop is Huville at the base of Mount Crumpet. It's home to the Hoos. And each year they trumpet.

You weren't trained on that? I was not trained in the rhyme. No, no. This is all unfamiliar to me. I just remember like, oh, my God. Nobody told me a fucking little musical number would happen here. So the Whoville sets are just up the street from Wisteria Lane right next door to, you know. And they had quite a neighbor with Norman Bates.

the Bates Motel. But the Whoville set, every holiday season, Hues would come out and dance, and they'd sing. A lot of people. Yeah. It was a really impressive, yeah. It was a full production. There was a little tech booth on the other side of the road. It was a lot of fun. Catchy, catchy tunes. But the Grinch came out of a tunnel. There was a little kind of,

it almost looked like a Mario pipe. That's what he called out of. And then at the end, when you go to the Mummy Tunnel, when it was the Grinch Tunnel, there would be the other end of his tube there and then he'd be inside the Grinch Tunnel. Whoa. I only know it.

I've only heard tell. I've never experienced it. You didn't do this yourself. It would have been pre-2013. Right, right. Yeah. Did they light it different? Did they make it green in there or something?

I think so. Yeah. I have to imagine they at least like turned off the hieroglyphics that glow in the dark. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, there's like light flashes of kind of like day glow paint, like scary faces and stuff. And then somehow we didn't talk in that episode about that all the, uh, You know, scarab beetles consume Whoopi Goldberg. They devour her to a skeleton.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yes. Whoopi Goldberg is torn liverly. Rupi Goldberg turns to dust, though then she shows up again to say goodbye at the end. But then there's a big spray. And you're like, from Beatles? And then they, in this script here, they try to justify it by, you're supposed to say, ew, beetle juice. Oh, well, he's in the park.

That's true. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, that's energy. But I just don't understand. They all, like, they ate Whoopi Goldberg, and then they were so full from Whoopi that they all exploded. Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah, I'll take that too. Yeah, yeah. Her staff, she, her staff fell and broken to a million pieces.

You're getting glass, it was staff. Sure, sure, then. You're getting a staff infection, an actual state. The real curse of the mummy is a staff infection. That's why I had to be shut down because of the staff infection. It has to happen. Wig-wag light. Yeah, yeah, okay.

I'll go away back light. No, that's okay. This is going to be valuable for me. And other things come up, I don't want to talk about. But let's, in your esteemed tour guide journeys, you got to play an on-screen tour guide. It's true. You were in the season premiere of hacks as a, well, as a universal guide, it's sort of not. It's left nebulous.

Yeah, it's a little nebulous, which is funny because guides are, especially former guides, were very quick to find me on Instagram and Facebook to say, that's not where Wisteria Lane is. Exactly what I was thinking. I watched it this morning and I was like, I wonder if it drove him crazy or anyone else that that is clearly not where wascary elanist. Yeah. Well, it, you know, it's also, that's not what a studio tour tram looks like. And also they show in other scenes that the talk show films at Television City. So it's kind of is just like a, it is universal lot but it's not the universal lot yeah yeah it is too like an alternate universe where that like because they they want to do psycho jokes and hysteria lane jokes which are good it's all very fun

it's a great scene uh and great job but uh yes but otherwise not i would i call that impossible architecture and my favorite one to point at is uh our friend paul rust and his show love he lived at the oak woods and then when he walked down to a gas station to get snacks it would be a gas station Echo Park. I remember that. You can walk to a gas station

from the Oakwood Apartments where all the stars and child stars live when they come out to shoot. I think it's

called even now. But the gas it's a different gas station. It's a different gas station. You don't believe

everything you see. He's a very large at the park one. When I go to the Burger King on Victory, Doc Brown doesn't live

right behind it. It drives me insane. I'm driving a goal, there's no Doc Brown here. The movie sucks. No, you gotta go to Pasadena to see his beautiful house. That's right. But it doesn't make any sense. But the interior of his house was filmed on stage 12, one of the most historic

on stage. Well, how about it. On the back level. And one of the largest in the world. Very good. This is a musical called Streetlights or Broadway or theater. I don't got it. You're not going to get buzzed

or anything here. Luckily, I don't know that one. Well, do you want to start veering into some of the stuff? Yeah. And I'm so glad it's you doing this to like shine a light on some of the like less flashy but like important things. And the thing like the stuff that I did like, well, it's a, I don't know, it's a mixed bag.

Some of these things I would really light up for some of them I'd be like utterly bored by and just like, when is Jaws again? Oh right. Jaws is in five minutes. But one of those is and this is front. lot, not backlot. But I loved Stage 12. I love that the first thing that you're hypen up

is a genuinely like quite historical sound stage that is huge and where when you play the clip of everything that's shot in stage 12, you watch the audience get pumped up, I get pumped it because it's all these crazy. It's the classics. It's

the Grinch. It was Hooville and the Grinch. It was the clock tower in Back to the Future and it was an actual outdoor resort pool in couples retreat with John Favreau and Kristen Bell. Whoa, wow. Wait, and wait, I didn't know that back to the future. That's like the clock tower.

Yeah, the close-ups of the clock tower. Close-ups of doc, like connecting the wires. Or far, no, yeah, I guess it would be close-ups because far shots would have just been done in courthouse. Or just been on the, thanks. But him, like, you know, the face stuff, I guess, is all. Oh, and Dr. Frankenstein saying, it's alive.

Yeah, yeah. I guess I'd put that just below couples retreat. Equally. Your first story, yeah. It's five seconds away in the same montage. There's, It's Alive and then say hello to my little friend. Oh, yeah, it's pretty exciting. And that's one of the craziest sets ever, just production design-wise.

That's an unbelievable set. I feel like I'm forgetting. Oh, Visitor's Center, Jurassic Park. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. And then where else in the world can you, is there a movie based on a, ride, or a ride based on a movie that filmed literally across the street from the ride.

There was a legend, I don't know if it's true, so I don't need a wigwag light this, but the legend is that when they were filming The Lost World, which also used that sound stage, sometimes they'd hop the fence and go ride the Jurassic Park ride. Which is funny, because like, as if Vince Vaughn needs to sneak

onto the Jurassic Park ride. I do recall it being, we're talking about this with David in the previous episode, I recall it being like, oddly easy to just go wherever you wanted on that lot past it and Drew was really affirming that I feel like now there actually are guards

and cameras everywhere but up through 2010 or so you could sort of just like any guest could just be on that lot that's what everyone said back in the day I would do it I would do it sometimes when I interned at the bungalows and I remember the accountants for this production company

like one like Friday afternoon or something they didn't have anything going on so they like left their offices for a while and came back soaking wet because they had just walked through that like fake hedges and gotten on Jurassic parking came back and that was a lot more fun

than I did another Friday when one of them just pulled out a full bottle of Jack Daniels from a file drawer that kept in their office because at the time I thought that was cool and now I'm like oh troubling yeah wait did they offer some at least

no did you sneak on the, into the park? Yeah. Oh, you did? Through the hedge? Sometimes through the hedge. Yeah.

Okay. And that hedge is no longer available. No, it's not as, uh, it's a little intense now. Yeah, there, yeah, the wild, wild west days are over and now. Right. Because was it like Homer, the Homer meme? Where you just came through the hedge slowly. Yeah.

And you had to go backwards. Right. You had to back into the hedge. Otherwise it didn't work. They kept being intern programming or the like, come on everyone. We're all going to ride the studio tour. and just walk out and off this building, walk through that hedge, take the starway up, ride the studio tour, and it's like, okay, we all parked in the lot, so now we're just

going back through the hedge again. And it was a, sorry, forgive me for, it was a hedge, you would go through leaves? No, it was just fake plant. It was fake hedge kind of built like you would sort of weave you. You would kind of weave in it out. No, I don't think you had to walk straight through the plants. Okay, that's what I'm wondering. Yeah, yeah.

tween something. At the time, many years ago, unattended. Now, pretty well guarded. I remember someone's telling me it's not easy anymore. I'm actually not just here for the binder. I'm also here to serve you papers. Oh, right. Not just me.

One universal to merit. I haven't bought enough annual pay assets to cover my demer. Look at that. It has a picture of Shrek wagging his finger. He's very disappointed. Oh, no. You have a bill for all the tickets he should have bought when he got over that hedge or into the hedge. Yeah.

I'm blaming the interim coordinator. I'm not giving back that T-shirt I won for knowing Bruce the Shark. Is there anything else in that soundstage zone or the bungalow zone that you were excited about while doing tours? Or were you kind of like, let's get to the, let's get to the cities? the most part front lot is a very, it's the hardest part for a tour guide because it's very info-heavy because when you're going past Courthouse Square or Little Europe or any Colonial Street, Wisteria Lane, which we'll get to. Yeah, yeah.

All right, well, reserve ample time, yes. That, there's something exciting and visual and the audience can connect, like the, to me the tour, the tour really started when you turn on to Brownstone Street and play the video of Jim Carrey taking his dog out to pee in Bruce Almighty because guests get to see what is on my screen is right there. And you see everybody pointing to their screen and then pointing to Brownstone Street. And so the front lot's a little harder because it just all looks like, you know, you can say what filmed inside each one and you can play clips, but that's kind of the moment that

everyone connects. So I always felt like getting through the front lot to that moment of Bruce Almighty was kind of just just try to like try to warm them up and yeah yeah keep the energy bungalows that's where those used to be dressing rooms for Doris Day

and Rock Hudson get some Edith Head stuff in there yeah we're not to eat well Edith Head would be more by a little Europe if you want to talk about oh is that right oh geez I'm almost yeah

yeah yeah I got rock I need wrong yeah if you haven't seen the Incredibles you haven't seen oh yes that's who what's that character's name Edna Mode is based on okay okay okay

Okay. Now, you say that, but... Edith had designed, I believe, the first studio tour uniforms. Oh, really? Oh, that's interesting. Or she didn't, and over the course of 12 years of facts have molded in my brain that aren't true. Either way. It's all about entertainment first, right? Now, you say it's not interesting in that neck of the woods, but when I took the tour,

I was paying attention to those, like, what's going on outside of the soundstages these days? And I was pretty delighted to get to see a big dirty dumpster that says Bel Air on it. To see where Bel Air throws out its trash. So there's something. That's not bad. See the real Hollywood. Yeah, it's fun to see that kind of stuff or see like what lunch, what food truck production brought in for lunch. And then kind of the crowd around it's like, there's more people that I think are working on this crew today that are at this in and out truck.

But okay. Okay, yeah, yeah. Maybe they are not all from the same. Yeah, yeah. It's an oddly big line. You ever see, ever see celebrities? Ever see even celebrity parking spaces? Yes, I gave Tyrese a tour.

Wow. He was on my, not even VIP in the trolley, which I don't think I've ever given a celebrity a VIP tour. But yeah. You used to do VIP here and there? Yeah, for about a year and a half. Gotcha. And then nothing against it.

People really enjoy doing VIP. my truly I just walked in one day and I said I cannot force myself to invest in people's days I truly do not care they say they want to ride Jurassic Park before lunch I say okay and then they only get a 15 minute lunch because I truly am not invested in how their day goes so I think it's best if I leave I don't I don't care there's so there's some touring responsibility yes blocking out the day yes yeah you got to schedule the day especially Well, then they got rid of the shows because my trick was always, all right, well, the first thing I'm going to do is I'm going to take you to Animal Actors Show, because then I can lose you for 20 minutes. Then we take you right next door to special events where I can lose you for 30 minutes.

Then we're going up to Waterworld where I can lose you for another 20 minutes. So now the day's halfway over. I've barely done anything with you, but it looks like I planned it all out. I made sure. I scheduled it so we cut it every show, you guys. It rides. You can just go on. You can just hop in any line without me.

But I got you to every single ball. I would have been very satisfied with that line up. I like all those shows. Every show. Wow. I saw the monkey bring out the bra. That is, you know, I guess like same with Disneyland. But I feel like for being in Southern California, all these parks, nots.

All of them should have more live entertainment. Should have more shows. It's a land of actors. They really all trickled away. Have they not? We on the second gate on our Patreon gave a lot of love to Ghost Town a lot. and not that that's like a really odd way to have like it's live entertainment that's immersive and you're in it's different than they'll like sit in the stands and something

happens for 20 minutes yeah I that that was cool I feel like I read online after we did the episode that people are like oh I think this is going to be the last year I think they're going to shut it down because of Cedar Fair no I don't know that that's true I'm just saying there was speculation and I'm like oh come on he sucks oh wait I shouldn't say that though because they invited us back to scary farm yeah no it's good get rid of So Cedar Fair, do whatever you have to do. Honestly, you know, it's, look, you got to turn profits, and I respect your needs. Yeah, well, I, wait a minute.

You said Tyrese. Did I, did we talk over something else? So Tyrese was in my front car. Yes. And something I've realized, as I've worked there for so long, is like, there's a lot of times when I just have to say, Steve, you're the asshole. Like, you, I don't know if I can say that, but, like, this is a thing that's bringing everyone else joy, but for whatever reason, it's making you mad. But that means everyone else

is right. Like if you're the one person who's bothered by this, you're the asshole. And so it's kind of the case with Tyrese because he was having the time of his life. He had a car one was just all Tyrese and his friends. And everybody in the other cars knew Tyrese was in the first car. So everybody was having a blast. And I was just sitting in the tour guide seat like, nobody's listening to my jokes. Nobody's paying attention to me at all. I'm not getting anything out of this. If Tyrese wasn't here, everybody would be listening to me right now. I have a great story about how good girls and the good place filmed in the same soundstage.

You were having flashbacks to old UCB party. Yeah, oh my God. No one is listening. Why has ever, no one laughs. Everybody's too busy not listening because they're planning the next thing they're going to say. Yeah. Yeah. That's a UCB party.

Got to be funny. Have to be funny. I'd make them left. I don't get on the show if I make them live. And we passed the sound stages where they filmed them of Furious 7. And I very pointedly had a, I thought it was a funny joke where I said, The Fast and Furious franchise starring Paul Walker, Dwayne the Rock Johnson, Vin Diesel, Ludacris, and of course, Michelle Rodriguez.

Like I said, everybody but Tyrese. Because I wanted to get in on the fun. I was like, let's tag team this, Tyrese. Like, what fun could this be together? This is happening between us. But he missed out on that. But, you know, seeing, it was really cool to see somebody just watching how excited he was to take his friends through that fast and furious attraction. You know, other people, mileage may vary on that attraction.

But, you know, it's not often you get to see somebody, like, react to themselves in a theme park. Like showing their friends and family for the first time. Like, look, that's me. So that was pretty cool. That is cool. This is a thing. We worry that people who have this privilege of being in theme park attractions. No, that's true.

You know, dozens and dozens of times that they don't appreciate it. Gary Senes. Felicia Rashad. They don't think about it. They don't, they aren't getting down. When's the last time Felicia Rashad thought about the dinosaur, right? Go check in on it.

It's great. That carpet is holding up. It's dirty, but the pattern is still vibrant. She doesn't have a lot of time left to go down there and see it. Oh, yeah, yeah. Yeah, soon over. Yeah. Oh, I thought you met Felicia Rashad was soon over.

Oh, no. No. No. I don't know. No. It's just they officially announced the closing to the dinosaur, right? Jason was leaking some personal news that he knew by some of Beck channel. Wait, wagglight.

That's on public. We had a doctor's appointment. I ran Felicia shot. Oh, no. We're about to go over off. Well, by Felicia, I suppose. Um, I, uh, okay. Well, so let's, well, let's get to the, to the wow moment, which you said that, that takes me

back too because I recall a lot of Bruce Almighty being pushed and is that maybe like no well Brownstone Street burn up Browns Street's one of the things of burnups we had two different we had two different metro sets oh yeah yeah you were pre-fire I was post-fire so I was a different metro set they re I don't know what happened I believe the Bruce Almighty Brownstones were the same the courthouse was one of the few things that didn't burn so most of courthouse square the courthouse and if you're going into courthouse square from Brownstone Street, there's a row of facades on your left,

and those are all original. That's what you can see in back to the future. Yes, yeah. But if you're lying to a VIP group, it's all the same, and that's exactly the bar that Phoebe Kate's worked at in Gremlins. You know, no, sure, yeah, yeah. That's the magic of the movie. Exactly.

Designed to the specifications, yeah. Let's actually, let's talk about this, though, a little bit. Wait, are you saying, okay, here just geographically, if I'm looking at the clock tower, what's on my left is original? That's original, yes. See, now I might counter this a little because I believe what we aren't taking into account is the, yes, yes, there's the 2008 fire, but you're not accounting for the 1997 fire, which I believe burn up those buildings. Because I, now, I could be wrong here, but that was a little map I saw. So I think maybe this is what's so weird, the curse of courthouse square, but also the glory of the courthouse where that has stood through three fires that have eaten up.

Everything else around it. All other parts of that square have gone up. An entire gigantic gorilla. Yes. An entire King Kong. A whole, one of the most incredible animatronics ever built. Just dust now. You're not lying about a lot of fire.

You said a lot of, when we were leaving yesterday, you're like, yeah, there was a lot of fires. And this morning, I was reading about a fire in the late 60s. Yep. That damaged a lot of stuff. Yep. No, 60s fired multiple 80s. fires. Then also 1990 fire. I didn't want to crowd the talk of the 2008 fire with talk of the 1990 fire. But that was a whole other one where now, okay, this one, and this isn't even, this isn't

this isn't some fringe conspiracy theory thing. This one, this isn't a mic theory. This is a, the 1990 fire was a deliberate, uh, uh, that was an arson situation. Uh, it was a person committing arson and wasn't at the studio. It wasn't a. It wasn't a studio trying to achieve a weird means In a weird way As far as we know No, he was a security guard Who was hired to protect a bunch of period cars

That were being used in the Sylvester Stallone film Oscar And instead he destroyed all of those cars And much of the rest of the Courtaise Square and New York area So first thing he lost his first look deal with Universal Pictures Stop writing that spec It is not Well shall not be made He went to jail for four years.

That was a big old thing. At the time, it was described as one of the largest fires in L.A. history. Took 400 firefighters to get an undercoat, like massive, mighty fire presaging the 2008 one. And it's also weird because it was half, while this was happening at the Universal Hilton, all of the California GOP had assembled to watch the election results that were coming in that night. Imagine this, imagine this era of a Democrat, sorry, of a Republican, California. California governor. This was Pete Wilson waiting for the results to come in, and he won. He won. But they had to do it as horrible smoke climbed up the hill and made it a very distressing an omen. Yeah, yeah, possibly. Yes, a metaphor for everything since. But anyway, I mean, like, and okay, so that one I think took Brownstone Street. I think Brownstone Street gone and rebuilt and then used in, newsies, newsies kicked off

new Brownstone Street. So that means all the sting stuff is gone. Like all what was actually in the sting. Everything from streets of fire which famously they covered all of the metro sets with a big black tarp so they could film night time scenes during the day in the metro

sets. Yeah. Whoa, that's cool. They turned the they turned the outdoor indoor. They covered, yeah, they covered all of it with like blackout tarp so that for streets of fire, I guess it predominantly films, I guess it predominantly takes place during the night or maybe there were child actors that couldn't work certain hours. I don't remember what it was again. But yep,

streets of fire. And that's that's a weird kind of like campy. Some people love it, but some people hate it. Like is it a musical sort of or about rock and roll? I've seen it. I've seen it. I've seen it a while, but I've never, yeah, yeah. Well, I can't, I can't speak to it more than that. I kind of want to It's got rock and roll. It's called a rock and roll fable. It says that in the, in the credits. And Rick Moranis, Bill Paxton. Will and Defoe. Very good guest. Can I call for our bathroom? Yeah. Sure. Well, actually, we have to, if you can pull the court above you, and then a van will be back as soon as.

Well, let's make sure we give a decent little amount of time to courthouse square because that feels like the, you know, if you get the early well. of the Bruce Almighty, but the big wow, because everybody, everybody loves these films. That's the, like, like, one of the most truly iconic sets that you can visit on any of these kinds of things. I don't think there's any comparison at Paramount or, you know, only Warner Brothers if you're a Gilmore Girls fan. Then you can take the Warner Brothers Gilmore Girls Pretty Little Liars tour, which is all that their studio tour is.

Oh, sure. Okay, okay. I didn't know the pretty little Lidersport. Oh, that's right. Yeah, they have that. Yeah. Sorry, Warner Brothers. Yeah.

Big lag on Warner, brother. This was a huge deal to me because I probably because of going on this tour. I mean, I don't think there's any, like, it's not any coincidence that being a big theme park kid made me love Back to the Future a lot, which then maybe, and then we're getting to do this job. Oh my God, I get to see this place. But are, are, where is your Back to the Future? Fandom, are you over it? Was it exciting for you to go this place? I never, I watched Back to the Future for the first time during training, and I liked it.

immediately the next day you could ask me what happened in it and just like um they went to the dance his mom likes him um you know all true yeah it's just never really stuck with me there's a lot of movies from my childhood where if my brother was really into it just i wasn't you know that's that's his movie i don't like my brother so i don't like the movies he likes so sorry goonies sorry back to the future okay oh it's one of those trying to me because my brother liked them um but i do like two better. Oh, okay, great. Yeah, yeah.

I was going to say it, because I'm especially a big two guy. So, like, yes, it's the, like, it's where the finale of one happens, but I was always like, oh, in an alley back there. That's where Doc and Marty leave Jennifer. That's where their plan is to leave Jennifer in a pile of boxes and hope that nobody touches her for the rest of the events of the trilogy. Yeah, it really, truly, you turn that corner and you say, who here likes back to the future. And it's one of the few times where, you know, these people from all over the world with different tastes, but they will, most of the people on the tram will come together and cheer about Back to the Future still now.

People will take VIP tours and want to propose in front of the courthouse. They just had that, they just did their fan fest night where they opened it up and had a whole Back to the Future kind of party down there. Yeah, we were there. I have so much respect for the types of character performers. You know, there's like the Norman Bates or the people like that that just kind of go out, do their thing, and leave. But the ones that have to interact with guests,

I cannot fathom how somebody could just be Marty McFly and just stay as Marty McFly, as all these guests are like, go ask out Lorraine. Are you going to bet on baseball? Yeah. They just have been able to stay in it.

Because you know they're not doing like interesting things. They're just doing the same. same five things. Yes, exactly. If they were doing like funny, scene partner, good improv, that would be a different story. It's not like it's going to be like, Marty, go turn on the time machine and set it to 88 miles per hour.

It's just going to be him setting, you know, you have to just stand there and be like, that's a good idea, maybe later. It doesn't really fit with what I'm doing right now. Just give me sick. Scott yelled at Principal Strickland. They got into a screaming match. Yeah, exactly. So that was a different thing.

I think I'd like to think that, the spice stuff is, and I hope he came. that interaction with a little respect for me. Yeah, and you weren't just saying we invented things, you see, you and I together. Go easy on Marty. You weren't just saying things you were, I think you were expanding the universe, which is really what you would want out of a guess. Yeah, exactly. He would probably appreciate that because it's not the same thing over

and over and over. Yeah, they'd be hungry for somebody to give them something different. Hopefully hope. I should have yelled. Not just, go ask out Marty, Lorraine. I'm right. Go ask out Lorraine, Strickland. That's not what I do. That's not my part. That would be wrong.

Strickland, Marty. I would have asked Marty. These calls don't make sense. I would have asked Marty about the Burger King on Victory. I would have asked him about the Toys R Us that used to be in that lot. That's not an Aldi. I would tell them all about that. And you would have asked about Lucille Ball's husband.

Gary Morton. Yeah, of course. Is that the former Toys R Us by Lancers? Yes. Okay. Is Lancers still there? Lancers is still there. There's not a bar until midnight, right?

Yeah, yeah, Lancers bar. It's all pricey, but, you know, a decent atmosphere. Is it like three seats? Yeah, it's the tiniest little room, right? It's very small, yeah. I think practically the mega movie Summer 2, character performers got to be outside at night. Yeah.

Like, not the crippling Southern California sun. Yeah, that changes it too, yeah, for sure. And less exhausting than scare acting screens. Yeah, yeah, I, I, that's another thing. Like, I can sit on a tram. and give an hour-long tour with no script, not knowing where we can go and feel perfectly fine. But if you're, like, standing in this line

and one by one, make a scary noise for a character audition, like, I would just, like, crumble. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, no, different skill sets, different people have. I liked, my favorite thing to do, I still do it now, but I can, we have access to the lot, not through a hedge, But so I jog, I go jogging on the back lot all the time And it's still super cool to run down New York Street

And go through Courthouse Square and all that And run past a tram and they think I'm someone that matters And that's all really fun One time a Spanish tour went by And the tour guide pointed me out And everybody on the Spanish tour waved to Steve who was running And I felt really bad because just I was running past George Lopez

And rather than point out George Lopez to the studio tour they all got me. Hey, look, it's Steve. Yeah. Court House Square was also a ghost whisper for a season. That was normally at Warner Brothers, but... Was it not always, really?

Oh, wait, no, no, no. It was here. Not here. We're not there. We're not there. We're close. Ghost Whisper, Grandview, was in Courthouse Square, but then it moved to Warner Brothers after one of the fires.

Oh, they couldn't fit. Oh, I didn't know that. Okay, okay. Oh, gotcha. And there's legend that the gazebo that used to be in Courthouse Square was because Grandview was in Courthouse Square. We had the fire and moved to Warner Brothers. They had a gazebo. Then they used the gazebo on Ghost Whisper, so when they moved back, they had to have the they needed a gazebo. And gazebo is part of Gilmore Girls, too, right? Okay. And, yeah, and that gazebo was also the steps of that gazebo were the steps of a train station. in Disney's Saving Mr. Banks,

where it was Turn in the Century Australia. Wow. If all you see is the steps of a gazebo, you could think it's just the steps of a train station because we fill in what the camera can see. The imagination will fill in the rest. Oh, God, that one takes me bad. Oh, my God.

Falls Lake. As you're doing the podcast today and you say a fact in all three of us go, oh, is that a good reaction if it were, we were on the tram or you're like, these guys aren't really giving it up today? It depends. It really, it really,

depends. It's a real crap shoot of who you're going to get as guests on the tram, which is also you know, you've got people that really want to take the tour, and you've got people that have been walking around with a family of 10 in 90 degree weather, and they really want to sit down out of the sun for

an hour. But would you take the noise we're all making, oh, when you say something, that's a pretty good, like that. That's interesting. We like that. That's listening. Yeah, yeah. I think, so that's pretty satisfying. I can feel the same way. Like, the worst is like, where they're not, it's never that they, like, they're scowling and they don't like you.

It's just the utter lack of attention. It would be that like the family is just like passing goldfish back and forth and like they're just dealing with the mechanism of... How dare you enjoy vacation with your family while I'm trying to explain to you about the one day at a time reboot? I am doing like I'm doing theme park written jokes, but I'm trying to subvert them 10%. Right. You should be responding to that.

I got a, yeah, I got my first evaluation. I used to wear aviator sunglasses. And my evaluator said, you're really funny, but you're very dry and sarcastic. So you either need to get sunglasses that make you look like less of a douchebag or you need to be less sarcastic. You need to show them your eyes so they know you're joking or you need different sunglasses so they just don't think that you're being mean with them. Well, but that's kind of a helpful. That's a little like lifestyle makeover. Yeah, yeah.

From there on out, I didn't put my sunglasses. glasses on until after King Kong so that they got to see my eyes and we got to know each other a little. Okay, okay, yes. During the driest part of the tour where it's the most important that you forge the connection. Exactly, yes. That's not, it's not a bad note. See, the driest, but those were always my favorites, but I also always gravitated towards either the back car, the second to last car. So the tour guide likely couldn't hear my like quiet little laughs to myself for like smiling and not like, yeah. It's the murder she rode town too

Antipat Cove Yeah Would you request the car Well no I would just kind of No I think I just Ended up that way When I would be in line for it Like

Legend is that three is the best car Really? That's what I've always heard This is my question We were talking about King Kong 360 And I was like I think there are I've had better

360 experiences I don't know I don't I There's got to be though Like a good car and a good seat, do you know anything about that? I've just always been, I've always thought that three

was the best. I don't know about for Kong overall, but just kind of away from the guide. I think you just get a better view of the flash flood and better stuff going on in the earthquake, a better view of the truck falling.

Oh, right. Do you like all the way in or like? Yeah, what side? Right or left? Well, it depends. If you like, if you want to see the shark, you want to be on the right side. If you want the flash flood, you want to be on the left side. I think the burning of King Kong made the right side less valuable because that's Kong and Jaws side. But suddenly, yeah, I think the real estate values of left skyrocket after the death of Kong. But you know, much, it was called the Phoenix Project because much like the Mighty Phoenix,

they teamed up with Stephen Spielberg to oversee the new New York Street that we have now. So those are all HD ready set pieces and state of the art. What's going on there? Yeah, what's like more recent history that we wouldn't know? I could be wrong about location. I always, I think Jackass Forever, the opening was there. But also could that be paramount because that's a Paramount movie. Could be because the shopping cart from Jackass One is at their prop department.

Really? Yeah, the 60th. You could walk around and see some props in one of the props that they, had was the giant shopping cart also used in the incredible shrinking woman with lily tomlin that existed before that was for incredible shrinking woman and jack has found it yeah wow that's really good piece see that's what we want to hear that's a really good reaction that was one step but that was less of oh wow that much and i'm saying sir you can save it for the end of the tour that's a little too much actually you're spending all distracting if anything energy right now yeah so

it's very possible because that shopping cart was there Right after the fire, one of the first things, I think, was Transformers with Shilabuff running down the street carrying the All-Spark. That was our new New York Street. But they didn't want to blow up those facades because they were just finished. So they made fake, they made facades in front of facades to blow up those facades. Oh, interesting. Oh, okay. Spider-Man, the Amazing Spider-Man with Andrew Garfield.

and a couple of scenes from Spider-Man 2 with Kirsten Dunst. Oh, yes. Well, the lyric theater where she performed in the importance of being earnest. That's right, yep, yes, yes. A fact I know that a movie, I've never seen. Yeah. You've never seen Spider-Man 2? No.

That's like the best one. Okay. Yeah. You guys know my level of Marvel interest. Pre-Marval. You're aware. MCU. I guess so.

That's honestly me with so many movies on the tour where, like, I haven't seen it and don't know that much about it, but I'm really playing it up. Do you have one that you're like, what was the fakedest enthusiasm for something you have no sense of in reality? The voice. Ah, yes, sure, sure, sure.

Yeah, they have a lot out a lot. Yeah, because stage 12, the very beginning, that first soundstage in my time as a guide, they've moved now, but that was the voice soundstage. It's painted for the voice. It was just the voice. So it's a big part of the lot Oh yeah you got to hype that up and hype it up early

But you don't watch the voice I thought you were gonna throw out a sea biscuit or a Cinderella man But I guess they're just posters going down the hills Yeah I guess a lot of stuff in little Europe like All Quiet on the Western Front like Yeah the 1930 all quiet The 1930 best picture winner all quiet on the Western front Same as same thing they use for brand

Indies Cinderella, you guys. Those two things I've never seen. Both filmed here. I'm excited that that's in the picture, though. I think my guide a couple weeks ago, Jorge, I believe it was. Okay, shout out. I think did a, I was like, oh, I'm glad Cinderella is being referenced. I get, I don't know, I'm just like, I'm fond of it aesthetically.

Well, she just reprised the role. Wonderful World of Disney when they started doing it again. What was that? Oh, but she just reprised the role in the descendants. So it makes sense. Oh, that's interesting. Oh, great Easter egg. My wife and I watched that a couple years.

rewatched it and I feel like so fast I went that's universal that back on is universal that's what it does it ruins you for for all things mine was destroys the magic yeah yeah yes there's no magic left and then it leads to us like not only like because commercials we said this a little bit but the commercials are just like I remember that was fun that's on Collinian Street and then also like that's my friend I know that guy that's mookie is in the ad I try to get through any commercial break I hopefully in any commercial break I know two people in the Between the eight ads that are on. Sure.

Yeah, yeah. I was always studish. Well, I can't book anything to save my life, so you're going to have that problem. I was always hoping, like, if I booked something, it would be a lot. And it was always, like, far out of the city, like, far north or far west. Imagine the dream of he gets to just go. Oh, if I just roll out of bed and just talk about new Dunkin' Donuts drinks at the Universal Law. Oh, but the drive was 32 minutes.

Oh, no. They sent me through the barum gate. I had to go an extra three miles. Oh, boy, those gates. I know those gates, right? Those gates, I know them. Well, you'll be waiting at one of those gates for your drive on, you know. For like four minutes, maybe.

They're very polite, though. Although, all the people were working that. The glory days of my commercial work, we only shot on one lot, and it was a Sony lot, and they recreated a chilies inside one of the soundstages. You're on a fake chilies? I don't think I knew that one. They didn't either burn it down or move a lot. walls or why couldn't you film out of Chili's? Great question because I did a Wendy's where they

built half a Wendy's in a parking lot. And they didn't do that for this. This was just an interior, but they built a fake Chili's on the stony lot. And that's the like the closest I've been. I mean, it is a lot, but it wasn't like doing the Universal. I had a fitting on the Universal lot for a commercial, but I didn't get to do anything. I got to book a, I booked one job in my life and it was on the lot and it was playing my day job. So. Good. That is crazy. That is cool. My thing that I would say with such vigor and they've never seen and probably will never see was, and of course this area was used as the fictional country of Genovia in the

Princess Diaries 2. That gets a reaction. A royal engagement. And that was one of those where like that's as I got, I was, maybe some of your experience, but somewhere around little Europe, Spartica Square in my time. That's like, oh, it's just nothing now, yeah, yeah, right? But I, in that zone, I was, that's where I would be getting bored always. And I swear, I would say that full title just as a like, I'm bored. I just want to enunciate. I just want to hear myself speak. Oh, that's me. Same little, I think you're on to something because my thing in little Europe would be, this is where all the universal monsters got their start. Dracula, Frankenstein, Wolfman, the Invisible Man, the Mummy. Punchback of Notre Dame. from the Black Lagoon, fan of the opera, King Kong, they all got their start here in the Universal lot. King Kong's in the list. And we got a slow driver. I've run out of things to say. And now it's just like, I would tell people that when I was a trainer too, like the key to being a tour guide is just talking slower. That's how you can get through this. Just talk slower.

This is, I feel like you gave tips that were actually valuable. I feel like mine were a little bit more like, you know, like respect the process. You were actually, you were, I think probably helping people have longer tour guide careers by having them pace themselves and not getting sick of it. Yeah. The metaphor I would use, somebody told me they still think of it when they give tours. I guess I said, think about in Frozen during Let It Go when Elsa is building a bridge. She's building an ice bridge over like a chasm and she's running across the bridge that she hasn't even finished yet. And so it's like, think about that. Like, start talking about something and then just build the bridge. Just, you'll get somewhere like Elsa and her snow stairs. She doesn't

know where it's going to go or how she's going to finish it, but just start talking and see where it goes. Wow. That's good, that's good podcaster. Good podcast. Good podcast. It's good improv advice. Very good improv advice. Yeah. Steve, you named all those monsters. You're going to love Dark Universe if you make it down the Epic Universe. Yeah. I'm waiting for I don't know if this is wigwag I'm waiting until cops are free for I guess they're very regulated right now I hear but also wait for fall or winter because it's a heat

oh yeah oh yeah no I worked yeah I worked in Orlando it's a revolting place on the planet if we could change one thing it should be to go back and tell Walt Disney there's other places there's other large swats of land this is heresy for these boys they love I'm being poured. I'm being poised.

No notes on the floor. But I'm mad. It's fun in the summer. The only thing that's fun in the summer is the daily thunderstorm. Like clockwork. Two o'clock comes around. The clouds roll in. You've got an intense thunderstorm.

And then the clouds just roll out. And it's sunny again. And that was always really fun. That is fun. I agree with that. It's more humid. Pulls everyone down. Yeah.

You know? Did you see the thing? Calms everyone down? People leave? they just talked about 10 person family reunions like in theme parks because of rain

it brings some temperature down a few degrees and then it's like okay it's not as bad and they're not fighting as much yeah not as fighting as much I just look I haven't seen it happens then the storm goes away

no more fighting I just haven't seen the syndrome in person maybe you guys can speak to it more than I can I just have never seen the rain car is fighting storm not fighting anymore The thing is, after the storm, it's worse because now it's more humid. And so sometimes you're walking through, like, the normal heat, and then you just hit a patch.

It's almost like you're swimming in a pool where somebody peed. Like, you just hit a patch of, like, hotter air after the storm. That is an interesting phenomenon you're bringing up those, the pockets of different air in Orlando. It's true. Yeah. It is interesting. It's just so stuffy. Yeah, it does.

The air conditioning is so good. I'm going back to six. and living with the land. Okay? I'm sitting in that pavilion. Yeah. I'm going to find the Mickey Mouse shaped cucumbers.

Yeah. I'm going to see if I can identify what was in our salad. You were saying Steven Spielberg designed the New York Street. And did everybody see this clip online

where Steven Spielberg took credit in some ways for Dark Universe? There's a clip from this upcoming special about Epic Universe where Steven Spielberg is like, I wanted the monsters in that. I thought we should have the monsters at this theme park represented.

And it feels like he's taking full credit for the idea, which I'm fine, I guess. I don't know, but I'm impressed that he's still involved this much, is what I guess really would. In that same footage, he says he came up with Ride the Movies, which I think was pretty well. Sure, yeah, yeah. But I think there was some questions like, well, what is this? Stephen still involved so much these days? I guess the answer is yes. I can't remember the clip number, but there's a whole, there's a whole, it's his home

from home. He grew up taking the studio tour. Oh, I just saw, yeah. Well, you get, there's a lot, I mean, him sneaking on a lot. That's something you got out here, but is it true? This is jumping all around, but while we're talking Spielberg, they're, like, I've heard them push that he, like, paid for the plane in War of the Worlds. There are a lot of rumors about that plane.

Okay, okay. How it got there, how long it took to get there, how much it cost to get there, whether or not all of the residents of those houses above got to got paid cruise vacations to go away while they were filming

so all I know for sure is that the plane was in service in the 70s because the armrests have ashtrays oh whoa that's interesting is that a detail you can point out if you're stuck there for a minute probably yeah that's not so bad

that's interesting that's a great place to be stuck because there's so much debris that you can just point out debris for a little while wow yeah look at that slide Oh, none of those Christmas ornaments are shattered. So those survive. You could sell those. You could resell those.

Maybe get a little dough for those. That's a weird. Let's just jump a little while we're talking about this. Sorry to go out of order. But the, I mean, incredible sad. And that happens sometimes on the tour. You never know. You're not supposed to talk about what you're going to see because things can change

at any moment. So you talk about what is in the line of vision. Wait, I was trying to recall in having this job how you knew what the order was going to be that. Is there, was there like a big map that shows you what it's supposed to be ideally? But then still you might get out there and be surprised. There's a route, but then things are filming. So you might not get Metro or you might go a different way around little Europe or something

like that based on filming. You ever get one of those days where it's all like there's so many filming pockets that you might have like a half hour of quiet zones. Man. Yeah. Like what on earth feels better to get paid for? You say that. So you show up thinking, yes, I don't have to talk for.

most of this tour. That's so awesome. But then the reality of it is you're pulling up to Jaws. It's fully silent. Your guests have no idea what's going on. You can't tell them. And then you pull out of Jaws. And then you're passing it. Like you, you realize like, oh, this is nice for me because I don't have to talk. But like, this is very uncomfortable because I'm just, I'm just, it's terribly awkward. Isn't that weird that you can, there is a version of the Tram Tour where you can do Jaws, but it all has to remain silent? Yet they still run it. I remember the first time. going like, you're kidding.

That's what's happening. We're doing silent Jaws. We're doing Mute Jaws. I think I've done Silent Jaws. I've been on the tram when the silent Jaws. Once, maybe. There's some silent moments in that film. There's a reverence to that tour

and to those animations where I think it's just kind of like, if you are going to film on the lot, you just know and understand and kind of revere that a tram's going to go by. Jaws is right there. There's an earthquake. I think, yeah, no, it's, it's, the thing she's doing is, has been announced, but talking about celebrities more than Tyrese even, Jennifer Garner has been on the lot and

she is riding her bike, she's waving to trams. I've never seen someone more delighted to be a part of this ecosystem and like, guides are coming back, like I saw her, I saw Jennifer Garner. Like she, I, I, I, uh, of every celebrity that I've ever been like, That is, that person has so much, is so joyful to be here. Wow. Wow. You know, you'd have to think that for, for a big star, that it's a good connecting with the public mechanism.

Yeah. In which you don't have to like, sign an autograph, wait, take a selfie, wait for, oh, sorry, my password. Oh, God. Like, like, you know, the things that make day-to-day fan interactions. Yeah. It's like a way to, like, it's face to face with a. bunch of people at once, but there's distance and it is safe. I know that they weren't allowed to bring guns

here. Yeah. The tram is not going to gun me down. This is a good safe celebrity environment. Yeah, and still on good turns with Ben. Yeah. That's nice to hear. They're co-parenting, you know. One of them's, one of their kids was starting at Harvard. Oh, Violet?

Yeah. Is this a, wait, are you saying the school that one of them is going to? Oh, wait, that's, oh, Harvard. Harvard College? Violet is going to Harvard. I was wondering if you were starting to say Harvard, Westlake, the high school is nearby. No, not the, no. If you're outing the high school, that... No, I wasn't outing the high school.

I saw a news story where one of them was dropping her off at Harvard. Is this insider information, you know? No, it was like in the tabloids or Yahoo Entertainment or something. This is Jason the gossip hound. I didn't know. I didn't know how we knew they were on such... I told you, I spent time on to me. Well, once in a while, I see that, yes, after Ben left, Jennifer Lowe.

Lopez, that it does seem like he's been awfully close with his other ex-wife, Jennifer Gardner. Yes. I have seen it, too. So I don't know if Jason had like an inside track. But I guess no, he's just reading the same things on you. Yahoo News. Yeah, who knows. What seems to happen is you're not going to Yahoo News anymore.

I guess that's true. Well, I guess that's very apparent. You're a journalist. You have a microphone. You have a pulpit. It's your obligation to go to Yahoo News. You have to read both discussing film and double check it every time to make sure it's not disbussing film

or like the parody discussing film accounts I should I have to double check that I've almost fallen for it a few times Jason keeps getting tricked by disbussing news no because you don't it's in the user you have to it's not in the

display name it's in the username there's a lot of these parodies out there double check new Star Wars trilogy to star Stephen Miller doesn't it seem right for First of all, he has a job to do. And second way, he's a bad guy. There was new Star Wars stuff that I cannot track.

They were finally committing to a new one. I get all my. Is someone in it? Like a big name? This is compelling concept. I mean, I do. I know. I know.

Sean Levy. I imagine, by the way, directed. Unless it is just shots of stars, I imagine that someone will be in it. You heard it here first, folks. Is it Amy Adams? Uh, I don't, yeah, maybe. It was a big name. It's Gosling.

It's Starfighter. It's with Sean Levy, the director of Deadpool versus... The new segment within the show should be The Goslings, and that refers to that we're all gossip hounds. We're all the little gozzlings. Right. And we can discuss like, all right, so the new Captain America filming? I don't know, maybe.

Could be. I don't know, let me look it up. Ah, shit, it's disbussing film. Okay. Well, moving on. Jason's own TMZ show where he like vaguely recalls things he heard. He needs a much bigger thermos. Jason, are you getting your movie news from?

the AI posters that show up in Facebook feeds. I'm not that old scene. Daddy's Home 3. There was one of those reasons. There's always so many sequels now where I almost, I feel like I almost felt for one of those reasons.

I always have to go through the comments and just make myself sad at how many people are like, it looks so good. Like, did you even read the poster? They spelled hocus pocus wrong. There's, So those letters are not English

They're not any foreign language either It just says Hocus 3 What do you mean this looks so good There's a one of those There's a music account that shares AI photos of rock stars doing things That look totally fake But it'll be like

Oh Stephen Tyler visit sick child in hospital With some AI photos of Stephen Tyler Kind of looks like him And then all the people are like He's such a great person in the comments Like it feels like everyone falls for the I like it's but there's a million babies in that it's like how but they've taken that photo with that many

children yeah he gently petted the head I should find a million babies with his seven fingers it is it is really bizarre versions of the friends cast if you want to add it all together have you seen that baby friends is that what a wonderful world of content we need to this I'm glad we're doing some tramber now we need to fight for big budget Hollywood blockbusters

we need to we better summer next year folks Results not so good from 20205. We need to fight the AI skirts. Let's all go to the movies. Here's one of the ones where it just says, holy, Aerosmith legend, Stephen Tyler's haircut stuns fans.

And it's an AI photo of Stephen Tyler with short hair. It's not real. Yeah, he doesn't. No, it's not real. I don't know. Yeah, yeah. Well, you know, I saw this crazy one where Will Smith is performing

in front of an impossibly big audience that wasn't there. Where did I see that? Oh, right, on Will Smith's YouTube channel. You did it. It doesn't help. More and more people are in the cast of the Devil Wears Prada 2 every week. I can't keep track.

You seem disappointed by that, the mere mention. I was disappointed when they announced a real Devil Wears Prada too because I was really enjoying all the Facebook AI posters of Devil Wears Prada 2. I really liked where those were going. It seemed like they were going to do something very European. There was an Eiffel Tower in one of them. Well, you can commission your own based on the post. Just feed the posters back into the AI.

And then you can, the same opening weekend of the real one, you can watch an alternate AI one. That's true. Somebody who should make AI posters of our podcast with fake episodes that we didn't do. Yeah. Hey, go make AI everybody. No. Get out there. Get your hands dirty.

We're done. Start prompting. Let's weave into, do you have any thoughts, fondnesses of the area, old Mexico? Old Mexico. So that's like, okay, that's like the flash flood. Just that big fat liar remains a, an iconic moment on the studio tour because it's the best. You're never going to beat Paul Giamati in that flash flood. You cannot run a wolf kid.

Yeah, we'll see about that. We did a Patreon about this, but I was, yeah, I was hoping you were also a fan of at least that sliver. Have you ever seen the full film? Of course. Okay, that was, I don't know if it's like, oh, wow, wow. Yeah, I did too. That's your back to the future. That's my back to the future.

Yeah, yeah. Talking about this historic film, lot, is that the movie we've mentioned most on this series? It's Big Fat Lawyer. By default. It ends up having to be. It is truly, you'd think it was sponsored by the tour. They get on the tram. They go in the prop department.

Because there's a prop department clip also, and I can't remember. Oh, yeah. Did they introduce one? Was there ever a clip where it's like, hey, it's us from Vif L.R. There probably was. Not by the time I got there, but, you know, it seems like something they would have done. They were on the lot. They had the opportunity.

Yeah. Yeah, yeah. I think I had the theory on the Patreon that the movie was actually like a, it was itself like a shell of a movie designed to showcase all of what could be filmed on this lot. Like it was like an industrial film. I'd be interested. And you could ask, you should have asked Drew. I'm wondering if you have. Ask anybody who comes to talk about working on the studio.

if they have ever seen a moment where people and where women in Vegas showgirl costumes walk by. Because in every movie, when they're on a movie lot, there's Vegas showgirls walking by. But I've never seen a Vegas showgirl on the lot. It happens in Big Fat Liar. Did it happen, did it ever happen while they were filming? What was the Pamela Anderson? The last showroom? Yeah, yeah, yes.

Did that create a scenario where a bunch of showgirls all had to file out of a room? Perhaps. And then there was also a movie with. the llama filming next door. Maybe. I didn't see that movie, actually. No, neither. Yeah, their costume racks being pushed outside.

Vegas showgirls, the wildlife, for sure. Probably some cowboys. Probably some, yeah. Every kind of genre, a cowboy, an alien, a monster. This is why we do need to, like, we got to do something with tax breaks or something. We need to, like, build back the Hollywood where radically different genres of film and TV show are all filming at soundstages. next door to each other.

Or just hire people for the studio tour to walk around Oh yeah, just a bunch of showgirls. It's just like, oh, look, there's a ringleader with a tiger and And then a spaceman from the 1960s. And there's Mindy Kling. You could totally just, and then you could pretend there's a bunch of sequels filming. Yeah, yeah.

Like those AI posters. Oh, yeah, yeah. Big Fat Liar 2 is filming tonight on the lot and we can take a look right here. you probably heard about on Facebook recently. I guess that's another, like, similar to Jason's Impossible Geography is also when I'm watching a movie, and they're like, they're filming a movie, but then there's also a poster for the movie they're filming. Like in Scream 3, they're like, now in production, a big poster of Stab 3.

No, you wouldn't have a poster for it yet. Yeah. You wouldn't be putting up a poster promoting what you're filming. It would be putting up a poster promoting what you want to promote because it's going to be in theaters. Yeah, that happens a lot. Yeah, that is a, yeah, that's a real bug out. No, no, no, no, you're right about that one.

The way I've kept up with a lot of recent releases is that up at CityWalk, when you are going to the parking garage, there's all the Universal stuff, and it's like, that's how I learned about him. Up at CityWalk, and then these billboards by Universal's One Entrance, because they clearly own them, or they just, or they just lease them in perpetuity, because it's always like, wow, the Gabby's Dollhouse movie. Oh, yeah. I've walked through Citywalk quite a bit recently and I know nothing about Gabby's I know nothing about Gabby's dollhouse but there is a whole big part of the world that is very excited for Gabby for dollhouse. Whatever it is there are people excited about it. Is that toddler stuff?

It's taller stuff. It looks like it's going to make a lot of money which is good because yeah, the poster looks like it costs like $10 to make. It's very so. It doesn't matter. I guess they'll see whatever it is. Let me, let's veer into, I'm curious how long you will want to stay in the zone we call six points, Texas. Six points, Texas.

Do you care about Westerns? But I will say I did not care about it. No, this is another moment where it's just like, yeah, Western starring Jimmy Stewart, John Wayne, and like, please don't ask me to name a single one. I wrote down the ones, because this is another one. This was a zone where I would die a little bit having to, when I got to, Audie Murphy, Hoot Gibson. I realized it was the same thing like there's parts of this parts of the tour that really lit me up like I'm as enthusiastic as it and then when I'm saying the name Hoot Gibson it is exactly the feeling of when Mike brings up Lucy's old husband exactly like it's the same experience Gary Morton and then second husband second not Desi I'm really fighting to never retain the name I really hope that I never learn it okay there's still parts something in my head is telling me that it's Frank and I want to keep it well that's Frank Nelson her friend who's the yes man on all those episodes But that was a preview when I was 20 of like here, now me at 40, like, glazing over names. I don't care about a haughty Murphy.

Okay. But were you excited, you guys, when you saw the Western area in once upon a time in Hollywood. Yes. A great sequence. A great revitalizing. That is like, and if you're a film fan and you were on that tour, like, oh, shit, here, it's here. And that it's like self-reflectively that it's not only in this cool movie, but in a, like, that it is where this, show would have filmed in the 60s. It's another good example of me, like, being mature enough to know that if everybody's

excited but me, I'm the asshole. And it was waiting to get into the earthquake, but we were held because Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt were filming a scene for once upon a time in Hollywood. And, like, Quentin was on the car, was in the car with them, and it was taking a while. And everybody could, we were in a place where everybody could tell exactly who was in that car and the whole time I'm just like I am supposed to be on lunch right now I when are we going to get into this earthquake so I can go back because I want to go to the employee cafeteria and get my sandwich so a lot of you know I think after a while you get

a little too jaded to it and the magic is is no longer there and instead it's just like I'm not going to meet Brad Pitt I'm not in this movie what am I going to do I'm not getting paid for once upon a time in Hollywood but I'm paying for it now that's the sort of bagger. You'd see from Leonardo Cabrero's character when he got packed to his trail. Oh, that's right. Yeah, yeah. Which he stole from Scott, because after every recording, Scott goes in the lobby, it just

threw its stuff for his six whiskey showers last night. Fucking Lucy husband came up again. You keep letting it happen. You said tuna first. You gave them the inn. Then they went for 25 fucking minutes. And I veer

away to make sure it doesn't happen now. You know what I really like is the, this is such, it's so mundane, but I always like to, and I don't even know if it's there anymore, is that water tank. There's some reason the water tank was fascinating to me. The credits for it were so odd and scenes that I like, so I like talking about them.

One being when they're fighting the big snake in the Dan Akronet, Tom Hanks, Dragnet, and then the other one, Kramer is swimming in the East River on Seinfeld. Name another. Give me another example. Let me see.

Moving along, quick, quick, Fuck, you're embarrassing yourself in front of Steve. Yeah, there isn't one, is there? I couldn't either. Yeah, yeah, that isn't odd. You think, you know, we think in threes in the comedy world. And there are those things on the tour where, like, there's only two, huh? Well, actually, the parking lot around the water tank was the surface of the moon.

That's how we take you to the surface of the moon. Yeah, in Apollo 13, because then I could say from the bottom of the ocean to the surface of the moon right here. So it's not just the world that's around the corner. It's the entire solarists. Wow, wow. That's where he fake walked on the moon in a dream. of what didn't happen to astronaut Jim Lovell. If anyone with PTR curse, because he died before we talked about him.

Oh, thank. I was amazed he was still with us. We salute you Jim Lovell. They still talk about your tour because you also spent a lot of time talking about how a man has never been to the moon. Yeah, yeah. Once your tour passed the water tank, it was just space travels an aisle until the end. Look, we're revealing all the illusions here today, and there's a filmmaker named Stanley Kubrick, And, yeah, you went to a soundstage one day.

I've been telling you the real shit. They couldn't, well, yeah, because you couldn't get on the moon. Because as we learned in Apollo 13, we need to think this, fit in this. Remember that famous line that lives in my head from Apollo 13? Uh-huh. That's fascinating to watch them do it. Stage 27, the mission control set. Spartacus Square, maybe he was gone by the time.

It was. You were working there, or the Square of Warriors, maybe it was the proper name I used in the scorpion can Stanley Kubrick everything's connected open your eyes Kubrick I didn't even I didn't even make the connection myself a lot of this was destroyed in a 1987 fire that's the 87 fire this was a place where a thing happened to me that only happened the once never again Tram full breakdown just shut down it's like an area that you kind of like do a loop in and when we were in the loop it was just that's the end of that Tram died and and I and the

protocol there, at least in that case, was let them off. Let them all just walk around and explore. Like somehow, I knew that we had permission to do that. And everybody, I was like, this has never happened. Everybody just like, go wander around. Just don't go far. Like, don't go where I can't see you. But suddenly, like, I'm leading a field trip. It's like a hundred and fifty people. Yeah. Yeah. It was like, I thought it would be scary. I remember them saying that there was a possibility that there could come a time where it's going to take so long for that tram to come that you just let them out. And that's what happened. is this not normal? Does this not happen today? I would do VIP tours with a trolley of 16 people and just

dread having to unleash them into a set visit. I can't imagine 150. It was kind of wild. And I thought when that day came, it would scare me. But I remember the trainer saying, you all are going to beg for unusual things to happen when you were doing this job. And sure enough, absolutely. I would get so lit up about anything that was a little off the beaten path. I get to tie it to podcasts. Again, it is sort of like how some odd little thing spins us out and, you know, a pronunciation

happens and then we get excited. We get excited, yeah. We go on 20 minutes. Somebody gets hoagie mouth and we go off for 30 minutes. We're on a new adventure. Usually it's one of us getting hoagie mouth. I didn't say who. It could be anyone could get hoagy mouth.

But on that day, I do just remember like, oh, this is great. And I feel like I like stood up. I think I, because it's like, you know, it's, it's like the stairs where I assume Spartacus makes a speech or something. Right. Uh, I've not seen the film. Uh, but I were like, I went up to the top of the stairs and I had to like direct everybody. All right, everyone, the replacement tram is coming. So five more minutes. So, uh, don't go, like getting to like command an unruly little mob. And that's cool while waiting for a new trade. That was like one of the best days I ever had. I had a, um, yeah, because, yeah, I've never, for the tram, I've never gotten off

the trim with the people. But for VIP, there's Pirates of the Caribbean. The first one filmed some scenes there. And I remember watching, because you've your VIP guide, you get a buddy. And so there's typically two VIP guides. And I remember one day watching my VIP guide act out like exactly how they used this piece of Little Europe for Pirates of the Caribbean. So the next day, I was like, well, I'm going to do that. That really seemed to work. But I didn't remember, I've seen it, but I didn't remember the movie or how it worked. So I'm just like, seat in my pants trying to be like and then and then you know how like Johnny Depp runs down the stairs and he like he like goes to this door and everybody's being so polite and it's like yeah yeah

but I'm fully just making up like trying to remember what happens in Pirates in the Caribbean but they're they're buying it they runs down some stairs and then yeah and then he looks at the ocean but there's no ocean here right that was just a shot of the ocean and then tepid applause please clap I well here we know we're sort of in this I'm more than happy

I think we've covered Little Europe I think we're fine in Little Europe yeah we said Genovia we're good to go good place Are people still excited about good place Or is this the okay okay It hasn't been too long Yeah no people

There's a few things that like You get a reaction from a lot of people I'd say the good place gets a good amount of reaction still Back to the future's number one Sure. It's close, close second as Desperate Housewives.

Yes. Which is probably next on the route. It's pretty, I mean, unless you want to say anything about the best little whorehouse in Texas. The chicken ranch. Miss Mona's chicken ranch.

Another thing I said with a big smile in my face about something I will never see. Yeah, there's a, the joke is always, this is where they filmed the musical Best Little Horhouse in Texas. That's right.

I said it, Texas. That's like the boiler playback. Yeah, yeah, yeah. One time I was on a, my, my VIP buddy just said, this is the best little whorehouse in Texas. That's right. I said it, whorehouse. It's like, that's not the joke.

That's not the joke. Also used for about a boy, starring Mini Driver. The sitcom, the NBC sitcom used it. Right. Practical set. It's not just a facade. You can film on the inside and outside. The best little, the chicken ranch is where,

of the Psycho House once upon a time was. The Chicken Ranch was built like a giant dollhouse on hinges and wheels inside of stage 12 on the front lot. So you could open it up to film for best little horror house. You could open it up and film inside or you could close it and film outside.

A whole house? Yeah. It was on hinges. It was a giant dollhouse. And then they permanently like sealed it shut and put it there. But that's why that's a practical set is because it's built to be.

Is that still on the tour? Yeah. It is right after jaws. Yeah. It is after jaws. And you might see a weird. Did you stand a flames? No.

That's not a burn. That one's not there. Okay. But you can watch. It should have with all what was going on in there. Oh yes. Yeah, yeah.

Yes. Everyone involved should burn. Well, the sin and all of it. Yeah. All of it. Let's talk with theory, Elaine. Yeah.

Okay, so is the show still on when you start working there? The show has just ended when I started working there. Was it on when you were there? Yes. Okay. It was probably didn't go down at that one. It was hot at the time. Can I tell you, it is still hot.

Okay, okay. It is hot with the Europeans. It is hot with the French. The French love desperate. When I started working there in 2013, we were told, you know, it's still airing in other countries. It's behind. So, like, it's still airing in France. So French people still love it.

It can, it's eight seasons long. There's no way it's still airing in France, but it is, I, they lose their minds over it. Wow. If I were to think about the things. that most guests get like the most thing that like the most upset guests get about something would be French people with with Serial Lane. It is a it is gigantic to them. Wow. So interesting. This is a brand new fact to me that is fascinating. It gets really tough because then you don't go down because they're filming you know why him with James Franco and then people are

really upset they didn't get to see with Serial Lane and you have to explain no this is it's a real movie studio. We we have to keep using it for other things. With one of the most I is this not one of the most in-demand zones? Because you can fully close it off. It's like a, it's a cul-de-sac that you've got to go out of your way. It's one of the things you do it. It's very popular to film there. Yeah, yeah.

That I feel like commercials all the time. Like every house has a ton of history from, you got an old classic movie like Harvey or you got the Munsters. You got an old sort of like. Hardy boys? Hardy boys, yes. That was a time where I, on the tour that Aaron came on, which a plant the seeds for my long-time marriage.

I remember that one. A lot of loves formed on Wisteria Lane. I guess that was, it's an average location. And also some murders. That's why the French like it. There is lust and love and murder. There was one time it was closed for filming, but there were trucks,

so the tram couldn't get through, but it wasn't closed down. So guest relations, they, I set this thing up. So I took two people down there with the idea being she loves Desperate Housewives. It's her favorite show and he's going to

propose to her. She doesn't know, but she's going to be proposed to. We're going to take them down for a stereo lane proposal. I was very excited. Like you're saying when something new happens, it's really cool and cool to be a part of it. So we go, we get out of the van, they walk around, they take some pictures, he gets down on one knee,

ties his shoe, and we get back in the van. Then we stop at Whoville, and he proposed at the Whoville sets instead. And I've always wondered if he got, if he like lost his nerve, but then got back in the van, and was like, no, no, I have to do this. I have to do it.

And just like, that's how Whoville happened. Or if I misunderstood and it was always going to be a Whoville proposal. Yeah, but that was. Interesting. Yeah. This is very funny. My wife specifically said, do not propose to me at a theme park. He was like, she had worked at so many.

And she's like, you absolutely do not propose to me. What was the spot? Where did it end up happening? We just kind of talked it out. And the, you know what? We settled on it together. The negotiation had happened. I did get down a one knee on the outside patio of the Burbank Town Center.

You did it at the mall? Well, we had picked up the rings. Oh, okay. Down the hall. So what was the nearest store to you at the Burbank Mall during your proposal. Is it a bubble tea place I like now? Oh,

so it was by the escalators. It was by the escalators. It was by the escalators. It was empty. Where my daughter was dancing to a teenage cover band playing man in a box by Allison Chains. Wow. A couple weeks ago.

It was a delightful video I had. We were joking about it and I was like, we were like, oh yeah, I guess we should do the ceremonial. Like, I was like, when we have the rings now. So you proposed there in front of the escalators at the Burbank Mall. Well, there's like picnic tables and stuff up there. But there was no one up there, but it was all decorated for Christmas. Now, listeners can go, listeners can go see the spot.

It can be there with a Stierland-Burray-A-Lay. Yeah. Yeah. It is, you can cover 80% of the tour at the Burbank Mall. Yeah, for sure. Well, you can't go in the series because it's closing again. Yeah. Again.

Yeah. So they say, but you know what? You don't get some location. paste Instagram ads closing for real this time. The last one. I have no idea of this. This is just a thing I'll always remember

is that I was trying to entertain my friends in the back, one of whom I soon started dating and have been with ever since. But I just remember like this was always where I would get bored because Wisteria Lane did not mean much to me and I would get so like I could not retain the names of the housewise

for the life of me. So then I'm trying to talk about anything else and like the Hardy Boys And I'm like, what does that even mean? Is it a TV show, the Hardy Boys? A movie? I don't know. I have no idea.

So I'm like clearly bored while saying it. And I go, hey, and you know, this house used it in the Hardy Boys. Back in the day. The day of the Hardy Boys. That sentence just melted and it got another. It just got a big laugh from my four friends in the back. And I'll always remember the. Well, if I were a trainer, I'd say, let's try to avoid back in the day, you know, try to give years or just don't even say.

It's a tad generic. It could mean anything. If you don't know what it is, maybe don't even talk about it. Just don't try. Why bring up something? You have no, you know, what you should stay on is stuff that you do care about, like the fact that much of the music video filmography of the director, McGie, happened on this street. Well. Uh, uh, uh, uh, offspring, why don't you get a job. Oh, yeah. For smash mouth all star. That's the one. Yeah. That's it. Yeah. That's the need, need, need, no further. Well, and I guess, no, you also need to go to Nellyville from the dilemma music video with Nellie and Kelly Roll. Yep. Yeah. She infamously sends a text message on a spreadsheet. Was, uh, what? Yeah. In the video, it's really good. She pulls up a little two-way pageer and it has like an Excel spreadsheet and just in one of the, one of the, um, cells. It just says like, what's up?

Wow, wow. I think is it a sidekick, a team member of sidekick? And she has spoken out and said, please stop bringing that up to me. Oh, this is like a minute of people talk about and she's like, oh, no, it's not her fault. It's a graphics department thing. Does it say like a cursive, it's welcome to Nellyville at the beginning. So this is like this is the, was it was an album Nelliville? And then this is the like true filmic depiction of Nellieville.

Yeah, of what Nelliville is. Wow, wow. Do you think because, I mean, I guess. I guess so, because, like, Desperate Housewives is still so popular. In the wake of it, they have to still have it kind of look like Desperate Housewives. Like, because there's old stuff there, there's Nelliville. Like, you could make the Munster's House look a little bit more like it used to, but now it's like they're never going to do anything.

It has to look kind of like Wisteria Lane. Some of the houses are different colors now, but yeah. Yeah, I think there's a little bit of that. And also kind of a general rule when you move, I'm sure it's not, I'm sure it's any backlout or movie set, but. The rule of thumb is usually you leave it how you found it. So if you're going to move into Wisteria Lane or Colonial Street, sorry. And, you know, like, why him they covered it all in snow and they made it.

They had like Christmas decorations and stuff. And so they're responsible at the end. Like, it's got to look how it will be came in. So I think that's probably also a part of it is nobody wants to pay to permanently change. Okay. We were talking a little at the, we took a break. did you ever see it when it was the outdoor three camera setup for the show Abby? I was wondering if we were going to bring up Abby's.

Because I went to a tape. Well, I was on a sketch team with Kimmy of a Porniom at the time. And she had told us like, oh, hey, come on out to the TV. And this was a pretty cool setup that had never been tried before, where they built like bleachers. And it was a show starring Natalie Morales, Neil Flynn, Nesslin Franklin. Jessica Chath I'm always

I'm going to best pronounce Jessica Chastain Jessica Chaffin Oh I know you're talking about But I don't know how you're talking about but I don't know how to pronounce Oh okay Oh started the upcoming film Napa Boys Nilsson Franklin

Skittles Oh Jessica Chaffin Producer on hacks That's why I mentioned But yeah they built like a full three camera setup And set outside

And the bleachers For the audience to watch and it was very cool the only thing was it was kind of later in the fall and they could really only shoot in the evenings to control the light it was about like someone built an illegal bar in their backyard and just all the people who come and hang out right and so it's all filmed at night and i think the audience the live studio audience got a little restless because it was pretty cold and by the live studio audience you mean you a P-10, baby.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, that was, um, yeah, that was like the first time that, yeah, it was a live studio audience, it was taped in front of live studio audience, but yeah, outside, um, yeah, I don't think that's ever been done before, yeah, it was fun show. Yeah, I, I never, I didn't get to see a taping, but I got to see the set and it was really cool. How many episodes did it live? Ten? Okay.

Was it too, I wonder if, like, they haven't done that again. They haven't tried a three camera outside. I wonder if logistically it was kind of a problem. I think it was, I think they were, it was a pain in the ass to deal with. Sure. Because then everyone has to, you had to get production trailers and trailers for the actors and catering and everything and just kind of scattering it around the lot and an army of golf carts. And the whole point of doing a three cam, a multi-cam is because it's cheaper.

So I guess if it's not going to be cheaper and bang it out. And it's indoor and you can control all the elements. Right. The whole point of a sound say. is control. That's like something to say on the tour. Why do we want to film inside of a soundstage? One word, control.

How do you describe Hollywood? One word, control. Did we sufficiently cover Desperate Housewives, though? Is there anything else you'd like to say? Has anyone seen an episode of Desperate Housewives? I watched all of it during training. I watched all the Desperate Housewives before I watched Back to the Future or Jaws.

More of a, the whole show? I've never seen an episode. Can you tell me like five things that happen on this? Like a two, three, give me three. So the pilot begins. It's very well known for being a very strong pilot.

It begins with five housewives. You've seen this? I've seen the pilot. Yeah. And then Mary Alice, one of the friends, she goes into her house and just, and kills herself.

She shoots herself in the head. And then so the whole first season is like, why did Mary Alice kill herself? What is the mystery behind this? So it's a, it's a soapy, mystery drama and then

what I really liked about it is they got known for every season having like their big disaster episode so there's an episode where there's a plane crash on Wisteria Lane there's a tornado where did they film that on the Sary Lane

they didn't just go over the world it's right there no that plane it was no this was a smaller plane this is like a two person plane a tornado hit the same season different Different season. There was a riot.

A tornado can hit and all of these things can happen. In the town of Fairview. Hmm. A tornadoes such a... Fairview in any state, USA. Yeah, like Springfield on the Simpsons. The plane crash was during, was the Christmas episode. So the plane crashed during the neighborhood Christmas celebration.

Oh, wow. The tornado, I'm trying to think when, I don't remember when the tornado happened. This stuck with you a lot more than back to the future. Absolutely. Yeah. I was part of it. Like, I feel like I should be mad, but I'm delighted by this unique pop cultural view. But, but you get, look, tell me this tornado, how did, um, how did Bree feel about that?

Where was Bree during the tornado? What was Bree doing? Okay. Oh, Bree, I believe. Oh, the tornado episode had Malora Hardin. No. No. From Malora Waters, I think, from Magnolia.

Oh, yeah. She's with John. She hasn't been a lot else, but she's really good. Walters, yeah, and she was, she was, she was at odds with Brie for this episode. And I believe she dies. I believe the tornado does claim her. Oh, no. I don't, I want to say something falls on her.

Now Brie has to live with that. Yeah. Well, Jason, Brie has to live with a lot. She has to live with addiction. She has to live with the guilt of her husband unexpectedly dying. She has to live with throwing her gay son out onto the streets. She has to live with her daughter not talking to her. She has to live with Catherine Mayfair moving to the block and being more popular than her.

And Sherry has to live on wisteria laying on top all of this. She has to live with the pressure of having the best flower beds. Wait, I think there was a joke about that. Because I was always, having never watched the show, I was always trying to parse what it is from the couple things that they say. And there were things that they fed us to say. Flower beds, I think. I feel like there was something about it. But of course, you know about those?

She keeps them, she's got to be buttoned up just like those flower beds. And maybe you'd see like two people in a car kind of respond to that. Here's the one thing I remember from that time about testers at Housewise is the cutaway gag on arrested development of protesters outside Mark Cherry's house. Oh, yeah, yeah. And I just remember when I was out here for college, they were really big on us knowing important names. showrunners needs because show runners

they're the most important people in towns directors and showrunners you know I tried to fit but I never could but I did try to fit in a joke because yeah the unarrested development

Anne said something about not kissing her this isn't Mark Cherry's house because their first kiss was protesting Mark Cherry so he tried to kiss her again she's like no this isn't Mark Cherry's house

wait I figured out But actually, I think this might be alluding to something suggestive that I don't know about. Maybe you'll know. The House of the Columns on the left is where Gabrielle, played by Eva Longoria lives. Look at her nice lawn. Well, as you know, she did have a great gardener in season one. She was having an affair. She fucked the, oh, no.

She fucked the gardener. Did they all have affairs? And guess what grade he was in. Oh, no. If it's any grade, it's a problem. 50th grade, this would be okay. Anything north of 13th grade, you're maybe in okay shape. I know one of the appeals of Wisteria Lane, too, is it's, oh, it's a neighborhood they can control.

But the funny thing is, if you go out the back entrance of Universal, that barum entrance, it's just filled with dead ends and neighborhoods that look very similar to Wisteria. Yeah. Yeah, and it's also because it ends on a cul-de-sac, and the other side of it is a turn, It looks like it goes on forever. So that's kind of, you know, filmmaking, Misen, you know. Well, the production value of the natural landscape. Yeah, it just keeps going.

You keep going, you're going to hit the house from weeds if you drive. Yeah, that's true. That was, I said something about one of the soundstages, about how it was Mission Control for Apollo 13, and it was Mount Crumpet for the Grinch and Kermit the Frog film scenes for the Muppets, Speaking of green, it was also used for season eight of weeds. Hey, that's a good little bit, yeah.

That's one for the parents, you know. Steve, they do these Warner Brothers tours that are just like friends specific or Gilmore girls or they do a Batman night. Could you pitch just Desperate Housewives night for the fans? You put it all together and it's all Desperate Housewives sort of activity tour and you Oh, maybe for next year's fan fest, they should think about. opening it up for a little tram stop. That's not a bad idea.

Not a bad idea. Take a seat one piece. Yeah. Because it's not just, take a seat, Luffy. Sorry, Star Trek. This is Terry Hatcher's year.

Yeah, because there's Westerillane, but also Park Lake, which used to be part of the waters. Oh, yeah, we didn't talk about that. That's where Mrs. Hubert, no, that's where E.D. Brit threw Mrs. Ashes in Susan's face.

The cabin, which was also used on love, is where Susan and Mike Delphino went on a romantic getaway in season two. The cabin from The Great Outdoors? And an episode of Coach? Clip 69, Yackety Yack. Don't talk back. Oh, wow. That's great outdoors is Closed 69? Wow, wow.

Oh, that coach actually, there was one thing that I thought was a really cool fact that nobody ever cared about. So it was a personal story too because one time I left my house I live in, it's a house that's been split into apartment so I'm in the front part of it

and there was an older couple standing at the end of my driveway once and he was telling me I'm writing a book about Hollywood and there was an actress named Nanette Fabray who lived in this house she actually opened a boarding school for young actresses in this house

and I looked up Nanette Fabray and she was Christine's mother on coach and she was also the mother on one day at a time so I go in so excited to tell everybody on my tour Hey everybody, isn't it crazy that I live in a house Where this woman lived and she filmed inside the soundstage We go to work at the same place from the same place Said it once, nobody cared

Not even the tiniest little It was like as soon as I started talking about myself Everybody was just like, no I'm sorry, there's a statue of Ted right there And I'm supposed to listen to you talk about Nanette Fabray Slow down so I can take a picture of the minions, please. I don't know.

I don't know if Mike is previously aware of Nanette Fabre, but it seems like the kind of thing you would glom on to. Because it sounds like a net? Yeah, yes, yes, it's close. Both of Annette Winichella? If it's a net. I don't know Nanette Fubre.

But now we all know. Now we all know. The legend of Nanette Fibre lives on. That thing you just said about the house? I thought it was interesting. That's a, you know, you know what that reminded me? Something I said, one, to speaking of making it about yourself

and things I only said once. this was as I've alluded to this I got this job during like a dramatic breakup summer and then met the love of my life by the end of the summer and it's been in the in-between month or so I thought should I try to use the job to try to date someone what if at the end I said like well I hope you had a good time and you know and if uh you know my name's Scott and hey and it crumbled as it came out of my mouth me just Just trying to say, I'm single. And I could not get through the two words. I felt disgusting before the I even began. And never again was this said. What it was in my head versus the reality of that. Yeah.

I wanted, I just, I wanted to shrivel into. You were going to throw up to the whole car? I said it at the end of the tour. Like, hope you had a good time. If, if you enjoyed it, my name's Scott. And I'm, I'm single. I felt like dog shit. I felt like a true, like an actual physical piece of dog shit.

Even trying that one time. I had my very first tour ever. We leave the Mummy Tunnel. And I start saying, that's the end of the world famous Universal Studio tour. I hope you had as much fun taking it as I had giving. And here's Jimmy Fallon. I like, first of all, I like both of these. Scott, do you want to, should we workshop it?

Should we punch it up? that single because if if he said yeah how would we punch it up yeah yeah no i'm saying to make it sit don't teach me oh no i'm saying i think we can make it fun you could say like i'm scott my favorite universal movie is back to the future too and i am single i think that we get a big laugh from a tour crowd i think it might get a little more of a laugh but then it doesn't maybe accomplish what his actual goal was which is to get a date that's right Because it sounds more like a joke. You don't want to couch it as joke.

And that's why he's the master, and I'm just the suit. Well, you do it like, you do it like it's a Motley crew concert. You have a different person pull women off the tram. Well, that's what if I, that's, that's in the timeline without Aaron, and I'm getting real desperate. What do they call, what do they call like this? Say that for hysteria lanes. Just the sleazyest, like, a guy that works for you, hey, you want to meet Scott after the tram tour? Up and down the road.

Yeah, it's to be something like that where you have no actual, you're not doing it. Yeah, you're right. Yes, yeah. You meet the guy who just did the whole tour. Come with me. I know the guy. I can let you meet the guy. Yeah, the guy who was on the camera on the little fuzzy monitor.

So imagine the worst looking guy you've ever imagined. He's the guy who's saying that to everyone on the tram. I think maybe you could end it and say, I'll be standing by the studio directory with all the wait times when we get off the tram. So come find me if you have any questions, comments, concerns phone numbers that's good that's a slip that's a slipped in there he's always been so good

that's really that was an odd statement he's always been so good well I know that Steve and I was always like funniest man on the room so it's yeah it's really lent itself well to being a tour guide threading the needle between

that's a good joke but serious Not as to what I said it too clearly, and that is, that's a, because somebody is more likely to go, hey, actually, and they do it. And is it a joke and what was it? Yeah. Yeah. The thing is, if you want to do that, then you can't do the classic all-timer. If you enjoyed your tour, my name is Scott.

If you didn't enjoy the tour, my name is Brian, you know, you can't, you can't do that. That's hard to be. It's a good one. Some of those little, some of those theme parky pearls or theme parky pearls for a reason. Have you ever, either of you, have you heard of a guy? who was like, oh, a person gave me their phone number after the tour, like a stranger. I've gotten phone numbers. I've gotten resumes.

Whoa, wow, really? Somebody gave me a resume because they wanted to work on the lot. And it was a two-page resume and a mixed CD. And he threw one over the board on the tram just so it would be on the lot. And this one was for me to just, you know, if I could just give it to someone. Did you? Who? Yeah, that's, I know.

Yeah, I know the same people. Yeah, and if you had that ability, you would use it on yourself. There's good that. Yeah. Like, sir, if I had access to the studio to work in the studio, I wouldn't be giving tours of this. Do you think this was what I chose? Like, you think I dumped off a resume to get on the tram? If I knew how to fold up a headshot and perfectly throw it like a paper airplane into the window of Mark Platt productions, if I knew the spot, I'd be doing it for my headshot.

My mother, too, when I was laid off once, tell me to walk over to Universal and just drop off a resume. What kid? What's the harm? And I'm like, where are the security gates? That's what, yeah, my mom would say, like, you should send some of your videos to Jay Leno. I think he would get a kick out of him. Yeah. I think he might want to, uh...

Don't you know that guy in community? Why doesn't he get you a job writing for it? Yeah. You should do commercials. Have you thought about commercials? I hear that's where the money is. There's to, I mean, I. Thanks, parents.

There's still like, I feel like once in a while I get like a random DEM and it'll be like, hey, can you send this or do you have any advice? And I'm like, I don't. I have no advice. I've been in here 20 years. I don't know. I don't know what to do. Learn nothing. There's nothing to learn.

If there was a door open, I'd invite 200 people into the door, but there's no door. Seems like I'm successful. And I guess I technically am, but I don't know. I'm sorry. That's somebody fishing to be a host of this show. Possibly. I'm sorry. The seats are full.

film. I feel like we're winding down here, but we got to give a little bit of time to Falls Lake. Falls Lake is my favorite. I love Falls Lake. That's another, that's kind of a bookend. Stage 12, legitimately big, exciting thing at the top. Falls Lake, still thriving, really important filming location of this day.

For a moment, kind of like the grand finale when the mummy tunnel was gone. Yeah, yeah. And of course, we all, you know, behind Falls Lake on the other side of it, you know, you want to look to the right to see Falls Lake. look to the left, you're going to miss all those trees that were used as the forest in the Jennifer Aniston movie Wanderlust. Oh. That is a new one.

That's a different one. The David Wayne film Wonderland? Yeah. I believe it was built for Jaws the Revenge. Right. Yeah. Famously the one that the shark roars in. Wow.

I didn't know that. That's funny. Yeah. You know what's something that I would say there. This I would slip in and it was. quick enough that I would try to get little snark in and there was a clip package that starts with a big

healthy amount of Jaws 4 and then it would go in a rapid fire through other movies so I do uh yeah it was it built for Jaws 4 the Revenge it was also used in better films such as I keep going I had a I had a sneaky one

like that where we were they built Margaritaville at City Walk and so it was the clip to play about Margaritaville there was a clip about Margaritaville? Yeah. Well, because in Jurassic World, there is a Margaritaville. Yeah.

So we would show that Margaritaville clip and then, hey, and we've got a Margaritaville here at Citywalk. Look at that. Oh, I would have done that. Because that's a funny little. Yeah. Because in the clip, in Jurassic World, Jimmy Buffett is sitting outside of the Margaritaville in Jurassic World.

It has to grab his two margaritas to run away from the pterodactyls. Yes. I have a figure of that Really? Yeah Of Jimmy Buffett in the Jurassic World Recently reissued I think for sale again

You should also know that Subtramber has been a return to form as a theme park podcast After the show has largely become a Jimmy Buffett Buffett Trivia and Lorer podcast for I'd say about four or five years I would say yeah

Yeah So we got in here finally We got back I looked up by the way the stage 12 movie in 1929 was just called Broadway. I was right. You were right. Broadway.

It's a second guess myself. You know, as a tour guide, you just say things confidently and then move on. I sure. That's the way. Well, there was so many Broadway melodies. Yeah. You know, those kinds of things. Show tune babies.

Yeah. And then they start putting the same name. Rangling my gosh dang dear. put the year on the end of the name and they just use it again Yeah, but I mean, if you if you wrap it, I mean the ones in the clip were

Jurassic Park 3, the Hulk, Apoll 13, Van Helsing, Bruce Almighty well which I probably because I was thinking of Jim Carrey when I was writing that down in my notes I did absent-mindedly type Bruce Alrighty just wanted to out myself for that. Now you know how you feel about

the movie. There had to have been a review that was like, Bruce Almighty is just Alrighty. It's just all right. Then Evan Almighty comes around and they're like, I'm using the headline again. I'm bringing them back. They're not going to remember.

I write for a different paper now. They'll never know. They'll never know. They're not going on Lexis Nexus to find if that was used before. I was at Variety. Now I met the Hollywood Reporter. They're not going to know. Jackasses.

I'm pulling one over on them. Sully with Tom Hanks Sully, yes, the plane And they're all there The whole cast and all the passengers That is a mad That's a behind the scenes you can watch on YouTube That's a massive

Double dip with Jim Carrey Because it was Truman Show and Bruce Almighty It's the wall and Truman shit It's the door It's where Truman enters the world TLC waterfalls I would always reference TLC waterfalls That was one as a kid

I locked into that one Seen a rainbow yesterday What's that? It was just a quote from the song I would always do I would say like you know and as we wrap up the tour of your folks I do just

I do just want to say please stick to the rivers and the legs that's great and also sometimes if you want to kind of just be lazy you can mention waterfalls and then just try to get people to sing it for the rest of the tour

did you do that once on a VIP just all right everybody if you know it sing along and we just all sang waterfalls and then I was the end of the tour that's true if you do it from the chorus maybe if you do it from the beginning you're in a lot of trouble little mella has a case of pneumonia that hurts so much touch but he doesn't realize a

which we already did touch is that much the thing I remember most about Falls Lake is that because it's yeah it's used for these big kind of block Buster productions. Like, it's used for, like, movies. Yeah. And almost all the time, what's filming there at the time is top secret. Wow. So it's really difficult because this one moment where people get to really see, like,

what they want to see on the studio tour, like, all the rigging, everything that's going on in the lake. And then it's like, oh, yep, there's a pirate ship. And there's Johnny Depp dressed as Jack Sparrow. And the guy just, just, just like, well, then they're using Falls Lake today for something aquatic, it seems, anyway. Yeah, I know. And that's almost, that's your end.

That's the grandest view of the city you get, maybe the most, like, the biggest physical production pieces. And maybe you see a real star, but you can't really, you got to, you got to zip the lips. That's an unfortunate thing. It's either a green or a blue screen. Those are the two colors that do not appear naturally in the pigment of human skin. So if you use blue and green screen, you can take out all the blue or green, but you don't take out any of the person. I always wonder, why does it, is it not a problem that sometimes it's blue screen and then water is the water? Yeah, well, that happened with Spider-Man when they would film scenes, I don't think they used.

They made a green screen for the amazing Spider-Man down on the metro sets, but the story is that when you're using a Spider-Man has blue in a suit, so you need a green screen, but Green Goblin has green in his suit, so you need a blue screen. Oh, so you have to film them separate, what are you? Yeah, yeah. Wow. That's tricky. When I did the Oscars thing, there was an alternate opening that didn't end up getting picked, but were Conan was supposed to be green, like Elphaba, and that was like, oh, I'm going to seem so smart here. Probably got to be blue screen because, you know, he's green, so that's not going to work.

Oh, yeah, that's a good point. Yeah. Few, okay, all right, I'm looking real sharp here. All right. This director's worth his salt. Those studio tour skills, they come back to the play. That's right, you know, it does all, yeah, yeah, no, that's not a, that's not a false thing at all. You should drop off a resume.

Yeah, I was going to say, yeah, do you guys, you've been out of the system long enough, you're, you know, rehire. Oh, it's a whole, it's a whole, oh, yeah, yeah, so any, like, any past sins or complaints or not, are no longer in the system. I was going to ask, if you guys need somebody to work one day every nine months and not memorize the clip, and I'll do whatever they want and lie. Is there, would there be any need for that? I mean, that's kind of the position I've been veering for. That's kind of what I'm trying to build myself to. Well, once again, like the people asking Mike for advice, you know.

Sorry, I got to use it for myself. Well, I promise, oh, come, dude, you're once in nine months, and I'll have a little pennon like Homer, and it says, like, Tram Tour. Oh, cute. Oh, that's nice. I appreciate that. It really is a job there, like, if you do it too much, especially over a very hot summer.

It is easy to get tired. But then fall rolls around. It cools down. There's less trams out there. You're not stalling as much. And you do start to remember like, oh, that's right. I took this job because it's legitimately fun. And it's cool to go around and do this.

But, you know, some days it's just too hot and you forget that. That completely adds up. Yes. I remember like a, yeah, like crazy crowded Fourth of July where people are like passing out. from heat stroke and like the paramedics are there and like what is this what have I gotten myself and yeah and you're right then it gets like when it's magic it's there's like an older there's an older gentleman in your car one and it's just like oh I can't wait till we get to

earthquake so he can be jostled and I know he's not dead what Steve I'm remembering now when we took your tour years ago I feel like you did something fun and out of the ordinary maybe be an earthquake. Did you play a song during earthquake? Oh, is this way, we were talking about this during the break, yes?

Is this a, is this a wig or is this a way? Is this a, this naughty? Um, they can come out. I, I might have had some fun playing dancing queen.

Yes. Yes. Yes. Inside of the earthquake. Yes. But this was a practice that did not continue. It is not continued. It is not encouraged by current.

No, it turns out that if, Turns out that if your guests are enjoying an earthquake, you can just let them enjoy the earthquake. Okay. I enjoyed the change-up, though. Let the animation speak for themselves. Yeah, let the animation speak for themselves. I don't need to narrate what Jaws is going to do.

I'm going to take a sip of water. Sure. Well, the Dancing Queen paired with Jaws would be nice, too. That would be fun. Dancing Queen was always like my go-to of like, where can I throw this in just for fun? Yeah. Where can this just, uh... How many songs were available to just throw on?

there's a few my go-to I always like to start with lose yourself from eight mile Oscar winning lose yourself yeah just felt kind of fun

to like get on the tram and you've got that like bump bump bump yeah it's you know pumping everyone up Steve the mom of me of film was released by Universal Pictures

so we are distributed so you're probably in the clear that's true like using that one well it's less about using the music and more about the misuse

it's less about music music and more about miss you using more of a tonal, total mismatch. Sure. Well, but, you know, it's nice to talk to somebody who is like trying to experiment, trying to figure out new places for humor in this thing and keep it alive for yourselves and for the, because when at all, there's those things that you know you're doing purely for your own amusement, but then if, like, if it does work and it gets like an actual

theme parky audience laugh, you thought of it, it feels so fun, you really made it your own. I, um, yeah, like, uh, some of the, the jokes that are most successful usually came from me just, uh, yeah, they'd be, because at night you give a tour, but the guide can't go on camera because it would create a glare that makes us so the driver can't see. So if you're ever on the tour at night and you wonder why your guide's not on camera. Um, but that's when I would come up with most of my jokes because I didn't have to be facing the camera or, you know, uh, looking at the guest. So I could be looking all over. So I think my favorite was, um, um, after Jaws, people always, there's a fire at the Jaws dock, and people are always like, that's so hot. Oh, my God, that's so hot. So I started saying,

oh, I see a lot of people commenting on how hot those flames felt. Very interesting. The reason there's so much heat being generated by those particular flames is because it's fire. And that one always got a laugh. But you're also kind of razzing them

because it came from the fact that it's like, there's literal flames here, and then everyone in the trim is like, that's so hot. Yeah, that's how fire were. That is how people would react on the Jaws Ride in Orlando. RIP. RIP, indeed.

But, yeah, people would... My mother once was like, your Lump Brother is so shit. It was so hot. Yeah. The guide, storyline-wise, the guide had a grenade launcher. Like, things are going to blow up, you know? Yeah, yeah. Well, that's great.

You had your lab. You had, like, you knew how to develop the new material. you kept it fresh. I remember one time we were talking about oh, it's talking about green screen stuff and then I just, we had a stall and I kind of exhausted

my material so I was saying you know and if you're wearing green and filming in front of a green screen then you're just going to be a floating head in arms and nobody wants to watch a movie about just a floating head in arms unless it's a bunch of floating heads

in arms at a high school and maybe the most popular head in arms is the captain of the football team and he takes a bet to go to prom with the most geeky head and floating arms and then they end up falling in love with each other but then she finds out it was a bet and I just I just recap she's all that spun out and you truly had like an out of body experience of just like what are you doing an alternate head and limbs version yeah just play tram cameos my dude you don't have to be doing this working too hard but you know what I'm I'm glad you worked too hard.

I'm glad you passed along these things to our crowd. Steve Slaga, you survived podcast, The Ride, force of tramber. So glad you could do it and that you were, you know,

willing to go on record. Yeah. Even while being on the payroll. Let's go to the gift shop. Anything you'd like to plug? Epic universe in Orlando. Universe. In the fall, it's going to be a lot of the fall.

Taking off documentary coming to Peacock. Yeah, that's where the Steven Spielberg soundbite is from. And we'll see if it matches how we reported it. That's right. Pleasure to talk to you for a while. So it's so much fun. As for us, for three bonus episodes every month, check out Podcast Thore at the Second Gate or get one more bonus episode in our VAP tier,

Club 3. You'll find all of that at patreon.com slash podcast The Ride. We'll see you in the movies. Guys, all right, so I'm going to text you about the next record because we need to set that up. So just be on the lookout for a, I'm going to text you from a spreadsheet, from a Nokia flip phone. I'm going to text you. Where are you at, hollow when you get this?

So just be on the, when I send you a spreadsheet, please respond. I'll respond via spreadsheet. I can only do talk back on the walkie-talkie. Okay, okay. That's fine. If someone can give me the heads help, what that spreadsheet is. You need to ping it somehow, yeah, yeah, okay.

However you hollow where you're at, just make sure you hollow where you're at. Okay. And I'm done after today, so. Okay, okay. Oh, great. This has been a Forever Dog production. Executive produced by Mike Carlson, Jason Sheridan, Scott Gairdner, Brett Boehm, Joe Sillio, and Alex Ramsey.

For more original podcasts, please visit Foreverdog Podcasts.com and subscribe to our shows on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Keep up with the latest Forever Dog news by following us. on Twitter and Instagram at Forever Dog Team and liking our page on Facebook.