While other people chose to celebrate with reverence yesterday, we took the opportunity to take a private tour of Wisteria Lane (the outdoor set of Desperate Housewives) as well as the sound studios at Universal Studios. One of our college classmates has been a writer for the show since season three, and along with some other classmates in LA, we had a mini-reunion at the studios. First we took a van tour and saw many of the streets from other movies and tv shows (including the Bates Motel from Psycho and the town square from Back to the Future). Then we got to wander throughout Wisteria Lane and take photos and go into the houses which actually have rooms inside (many are just facades).
After lunch we popped into the sound studios and watched the filming of part of one scene with Bree Van de Kamp (you won't hear a spoiler from me....) and then met her along with Orson Hodge. (Yes, I know that their real names are Marcia Cross and Kyle MacLachlan.) They film about 5 minutes a day for each episode, so it takes 8 days of filming to get their 42 minutes and 20 seconds of episode.
Quickly wisked away to the hospital set next, we watched while Vanessa Williams rehearsed a scene, then left the room while a stand-in sat in her place to get the lighting correct.
Because our friend is one of the writers, we also went to the room where he spends most of his time and saw the board with the plot lines pinned up, color-coded and edited. We asked if he knew what would happen in the final episode (this is the last season), and yes, he does; we don't.
The final part of the tour was visiting one of the 5 trailers where they keep the wardrobes for the cast. Wow! It takes 10 people to take care of all the parts of outfitting the actors, including the shopping (I hear you can get great deals at Target!), cleaning, maintaining, and keeping track of who wears what for each episode in case there will be a flashback.... I was exhausted just thinking about it all, and I had a great appreciation for all 250 names that come up at the end of an episode.
To learn more about the houses of Wisteria Lane, click on the Wiki page link and see what other shows have been filmed on this street.
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| Gaby and Carlos Solis House |
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| Susan's Kitchen |
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| Also the Leave it to Beaver house |
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