TV Tuesday: Being There

[yourlibrarian]

Have you ever visited a filming location or done a sort of TV tourism trip? What appealed to you about it?

Comments

[olivermoss]

I've been to both old and new Leverage filming locations and did the set tours in New Orleans. It was a lot of fun.

I live in Portland, so I've also been to Librarians locations just incidentally. The 9 mausoleums in that one episode are all one sprawling mausoleum with varying architectural styles down in Sellwood that I've photographed many times, including before power was restored to the southern part of the building.

Going to NOLA was the only trip I've done, and it was really cool. The locations and the show's staff were amazing. Some of the other con goers were a bit too competitive. (I basically got called a fake fan for not having gone to those wizard world or whatever cons. I decided to not point out that I did Leverage events while the show was still on the air, not afterwards, and that I knew some of their names... some of them spend a lot of time doing edits of my old photography. I did not want to take part in a fannish pissing contest, even knowing I'd win. Also, some husbands were talking about protecting their east coast wives from the aggro west coast girlies and I was like... I don't know what this is but leave me out of it?)

[yourlibrarian]

That's too bad about the other fans on the tour. Policing other people's interests seems such a strange way to engage in one's fandom ☹️

I haven't been on an official tour, but when I visited Vancouver years ago I did an informal one of various Supernatural locations. I did the same in the L.A. area for some of the Buffy ones.

If I could go on other ones I'd like to see the French castle used in Merlin, and perhaps some filming locations in Wales.

[jo]

I haven't taken an actual TV-related tour or trip (but I did go to Liverpool because of the Beatles), but I live in Toronto, and so much is filmed here, the entire City is a TV tour. Our iconic City Hall appears in tonnes of movies and shows (and was blown up in one of the Resident Evil films). Roy Thompson Hall was CGI'd to appear much taller than it actually is in The Expanse (it was the UN HQ) and also used as the HQ of Vought International in The Boys. In real life, it's the home of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. Sankofa Square (formerly Yonge-Dundas Square) can be spotted in scenes in The Handmaid’s Tale flashbacks to the pre-Gilead era and also in the season 2 Strange New Worlds ep where La'an and Kirk time travel and end up in Toronto. The Umbrella Academy's Sparrow Academy House features the exterior of Toronto's Gardiner Museum, a Midtown temple to the ceramic arts. And then there are the shows that are actually set in Toronto -- Flashpoint, Orphan Black, Law and Order Toronto, just to name a few.

If I was still willing to travel (and Covid wasn't a thing, or if people were still at least acknowledging that it's still a thing and masking and taking other precautions on planes and such), I'd maybe go to Scotland to see some of the Outlander locations.

[yourlibrarian]

It's always cool when the fannish experience is the other way around, not going to see something somewhere else, but recognizing something close to home.

I grew up in Orlando which, despite some limited TV show production when I was in my 20s, was not exactly a film mecca. However there were two things that particularly stand out. One is that the main home used in Parenthood (the TV series of the Steve Martin movie), was a house I'd been seeing all my life as it wasn't far from our neighborhood. There were also various other location shoots which were recognizable.

The other was a big to-do for the city, as our old City Hall was scheduled to be demolished. The Lethal Weapon 3 production came to town for that. You can see it at the beginning of the movie, as it was all filmed in our downtown area.

I would absolutely go to some Beatles locations were I in Liverpool 🎸 In fact, this reminded me that when I first went to New Providence Island in the Bahamas I looked for various locations used in their movie HELP.

[executrix]

I haven't done it myself, but a Blakes7 fan whose handle was quarryquest did a tour of various quarries used as B7 (and Dr. Who) locations.

[yourlibrarian]

I remember reading that a fan had done a number of informal SPN tours for visitors to Vancouver in the early years. It might have been her online list that I used when I was there, and I know someone else had posted the one I used for the Buffy sites. There's still a ton of shows where only fans would put together those kinds of lists.

[executrix]

For any setting that isn't literally a hole in the ground, TPTB might not bother to do tours because during filming, they may have stuck a false facade in front of it* so it doesn't look like that. And, for an older show, it might have looked like that...15 years ago and now it doesn't.

*I live in Jersey City, and was quite surprised to see local storefronts remodeled and a New York City subway entrance in front of the public library--it was for the Dylan biography.

[yourlibrarian]

Oh, interesting example. I saw that and hadn't realized that so much would need to be altered.

[olivermoss]

Yeah, even if I had been new, why treat me that way?

I'd love to see some locations in Vancouver someday because I've seen them in lots of shows. I did have a planned trip up once, but it didn't happen. It's cool that you've done that and LA!

[delphi]

I've never done it deliberately when it comes to a TV show, but I did attend the University of British Columbia at a time when it feels like half the big SFF shows out of the US were filming there. I didn't love it in the moment: I'd have to suddenly make detours between classes because streets were blocked off for filming, production trucks tended to drive recklessly, and it spoiled my suspension of disbelief when that alien planet I was watching was obviously right outside my dorm room. But now, it's a really nice nostalgia hit to be able to go back to so many '90s and 2000s shows and catch glimpses of the places I (mis)spent my youth.

[yourlibrarian]

it spoiled my suspension of disbelief when that alien planet I was watching was obviously right outside my dorm room

Hee, I imagine it did! But yes, I can see it a a great time capsule for you.

[tinny]

Does going to the Universal Studios theme park count? ;)

I did go to a location where the season finale of the Librarians supposedly took place, but it was not the shooting location. "Just" the actual castle where Shakespeare's troupe used to come by, which I found related enough to be interested in.

I've been to Cardiff and looked at the Torchwood wall there.

The city I now live in is often used for filming, too, and once in a while I tend to run across active sets on my way to work. The funniest was when an abandoned building was dressed up as a movie theatre for a few weeks and people thought it was an actual movie theatre. :D

Considering how very interested I am in actors and film production in general, that's not a lot.

[yourlibrarian]

It can, sure! I know tons of Potter fans do. I have never actually been on their backlots tour and only went to Universal Orlando once, early on. And I want to visit the Star Wars Galaxy's Edge park, even though it's not a location and only has a few items there that were used in filming.

Interesting about the movie theater incident. I wonder if part of the interest we have is in seeing the spot differently because of its use.

[author_by_night]

Heh. I always wondered what people in Cardiff thought of Torchwood. Then I made a friend who was born and raised in Cardiff, asked when they told me they also love the show, and apparently they love the whole "this city is filled with aliens" thing. So I'm not surprised there's a wall!

[yourlibrarian]

Oh that's cool that the town has embraced it!