Trespassing
There
is much to be said for following the rules. It’s safer, easier
and the right thing to do. Every once in a while though, you gotta
push the envelope just to keep life interesting. Well, in the
spirit of interesting living, Merc and I took a trip to Universal
Studios (Hollywood). We toured around the theme park, saw a few
shows. As the tram shuttled us through the largest studio backlot
in Los Angeles, there was a bit of a gleam in my eye. I love movies.
I want to make movies. Seeing cinematic history close-up always
gets me. Little did I know how close-up this experience would
be.
The
tram ride ended and Merc got a mischievious look. He started thinking
out loud. “We could just walk right through there.” I tried to
reason him out of it, but then I thought, “Hey, what am I doing?
I’d love to walk around those sets!” So there it was, I shut up
and followed his lead. The funny thing is that it was really easy.
We walked past the same security guard twice and he didn’t even
bat an eye. Making sure to look non-chalant and keeping off the
tram path, we started out.
We
found the house from “The Grinch”. At first, it was way too surreal.
I couldn’t believe I was actually standing there. We heard the
tram coming so we ducked inside the façade. As it was going
by, I noticed a Christmas light that had fallen on the ground,
so I kept it (hehe). Next we snuck in through the back of the
Bates’ Motel. 
A
creaky old door was slamming in the wind and adding to the already
creepy surroundings. We took some awesome pictures that were worth
any trouble we were going to get into.
We
walked back toward the Jurassic Park 3 sets, which were not yet
complete. So Merc pushed aside some paint cans and hopped up on
the table for a photo opportunity.
After that we ended up having to walk on the Tram path, so we
just made sure that when they went by our conversation and jestures
were very “film crew” looking. Musta worked, cause nobody stopped
us. We walked down the neighborhood street that was home to the
exterior sets of: Harvey, Leave it to Beaver, The Hardy Boys,
Providence and many more. Just then Merc spotted a guy in a golf
cart, watching us. Uh-oh. Now what? Well, Merc told me to ask
him what time it was. I did. He told us. We left. Cool.
We
toured through the Old West, Little Europe, and Sparticus Square,
even got lucky and found a bathroom, heh. All good times and smooth
sailing until we wandered into the props area. We had just approached
the giant shopping cart from “The Incredible Shrinking Woman”,
when a security officer pulled up. “Um, do you guys work here?”
He seemed concerned that he was going to get in more trouble than
we were. So we politely got in the car and apologized, claiming
the curiosity defense. He was very cool though, gave us a ride
back into the park, and actually before he left, he apologized
to us.
The
rest of the day we walked around high-fiving each other for being
so cool. We paid our admission price and got a priceless experience
in return. It was way more fun that following the rules.
(Note:
Mercuryfrog.com, nor it’s supporters, nor the writer of this article
in anyway condone tresspassing or other disregard for law.)