Our Final Leg

After Disneyland, we headed up to LA to see some of my old buddies from my TV days.

At the top of my list, this guy-- Les Rose.

Pretty much everyone who meets him, adores him (including me). 

 We worked together at KCBS in LA.

He's now working for the Network. 

The girls wanted to see "Hollywood" and luckily Les saved them from severe disappointment.

He took us on a behind the scenes tour of TV City.

You'll find this interesting.  This is one of the halls that holds the "stuff" for the

soap operas:  The Bold and the Beautiful and The Young and the Restless.

The long rollers on the left hold flooring and

the bins on the right hold items labeled "Ridges office", "Brooke's bedroom" etc. 

 You can't believe the stuff.

Those are drapes of every shade, color and fabric hanging up there.

 We lucked out and ran into one of Les's friends... this guy who is the head cameraman for both of the

soap operas.  He's been with them since they went on the air years and years ago.

 He showed the girls around, told them a few stories and uncovered his studio cameras and let us

look in them to see how they work.

 Behind the dorky tourists (us) is what is called a "hot set".  You can't see the messed up pillows on the couch

or the tipped over garbage can.  They put the police tape up at the end of the shooting the day before

so when they go back to shoot later that afternoon, nothing has been moved and they can

start up right where they left off.

Pretty cool stuff.

We also saw a few soap stars but since we've never watched the shows, we

had no idea who they were.

Les then took us onto another famous set.

Yep, you guessed it, the Price is Right.

 It is a closed set (meaning we weren't supposed to be there)

but we figured we could whip out our drivers licenses and tell

security we were Bob Barker's grandchildren and get away with it.

After all the cloak and dagger sneaking around, we stopped by the CBS News bureau so I could see some

old friends then went over to the Grove for lunch

where we hooked up with a few more friends.

But alas, the girls' Hollywood experience wasn't over yet.

Right outside our restaurant, the TV show Extra was shooting intros with Mario Lopez and a few guests. 

 That was almost as cool for the girls as a visit to the American Girl Doll store.

Greer is pointing to her doll, Nikki.

Thanks to Les for a grand day.

The girls got some great glimpses behind the scenes

but I'll tell you what's ironic: 

they've never seen a soap opera

and they've never seen the Price is Right.

Maybe someday.