I was invited on an all expenses paid trip to LA by Sony to cover the #Ghostbusters movie, all opinions are my own.
I was so excited to go on this trip that Sony provided for the Ghostbusters movie! I was really excited to tour the Sony Lot and Ghost Corps. If your not familiar with it Ghost Corps is the Corporation founded by Ivan Reitman with whom all the magic of Ghostbusters started! I couldn’t contain my excitement when we pulled up to the lot! The first thing I noticed was the huge rainbow!
That huge rainbow is a landmark and can be seen from all over LA! The rainbow was put up as art and commissioned for Culver City to bring a bit of light to anyone who sees it from far and wide. It also references the Wizard of Oz which was filmed at what used to be the MGM lot now the Sony Lot! I thought it was so cool and brightened my day right off the bat! I also noticed that all of the bloggers I traveled with were just in awe of that beautiful rainbow, what a great piece of art!
Our tour started off right at Ghost corps and while we were waiting they were actually filming Masters of Sex right there! I don’t watch that show but I have heard it’s great and thought it was so cool to see them filming right there! The first thing I noticed when we got to Ghost corps was that the old Ecto 1 that they used in the first 2 movies was right out in front of Ghost Corps! I almost felt like I was walking on sacred ground because I absolutely loved the original Ghostbusters. It came out in 1984 and was really a new type of film for that generation. It had things that people had never seen before. I absolutely loved those movies and my girls actually both really like them too! In fact we own them both and watch them all the time!
So to be able to have my picture taken with the original Ecto 1 was just amazing. If only they had had the original jumpsuits to try on I might have taken off to find some ghosts to bust!
When we walked in Ivan Reitman the producer of both the original Ghostbusters and the new Ghostbusters was standing right there to meet us! He was seriously one of the nicest, most friendliest person I have ever met. I loved the passion that he had when he talked about not only the old Ghostbusters movies but the new one too! He wanted us to take a moment to look around and the first thing I noticed were all of the Ghostbuster toys from the old movies and new movies that I know my girls are going to love. 
Heck I want some of those toys myself! It brought back so many memories of my childhood that I literally almost teared up. I couldn’t believe I was there at Ghost Corps listening to Ivan Reitman!
There were so many cool toys to choose from like the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man, Ecto 1 and of course the Ghostbusters themselves!
Ivan Reitman the incredible producer started talking about the old days and how he couldn’t believe how many people had brought their children to the old Ghostbusters movie. A lot of the kids that had come to see the movie stated that because the Ghostbusters were able to contain a lot of the ghosts in a container that it made them seem less scary and that they could go out and do anything too! Ivan really wanted to know our thoughts on what ages we thought were appropriate for the movie ( I will let you know more on that on Friday!) He wanted to let everyone know he didn’t want parents to bring anyone inappropriately shy or young to a film like this.
Ivan Reitman set up Ghost Corps last year to expand the franchise of Ghostbusters. Ghost Corps is under Sony and now they are able to creatively expand the Ghostbusters Franchise! I loved that he let us kinda go loose and explore each room. We were able to go into the conference room and see some of the posters from the movies and there were stickers from Ghostbuster groups all around the world! Ivan Reitman said they had close to 200 groups! I thought that was incredible and so so cool!
We ended with seeing some yummy Slimer Key Lime Twinkies and tons of cool props from the movies.
After our tour of Ghost Corps we headed onto the tour of the Sony Lot. One of our first stops was the Folley sound stage. The sound stage we went on was the Barbara Streisand Scoring Stage! Our tour guide was amazing and had some really great stories. We walked into the sound stage and were able to see where Barbara Streisand had performed, Judy Garland sang Somewhere Over the Rainbow , Whitney Houston and more! I could’t believe how many stars and sang right where we were standing!
One of the cool tidbits our tour guide told us was that back in the day the musicians were still allowed to smoke in that room. So they would take a break play their instrument, then put the cigarette right out on their stand then either keep playing or keep smoking! It was so cool to hear about her fun stories from back in the day. 
Most of the bloggers noticed all the hawaiin tshirts hanging up in the sound stage and were really curious. Our tour guide told us that John Lasseter has done so many films in that sound stage he has left a hawaiin shirt for each film that was scored there!
It was incredible to also see the sound board and to realize how many moving parts go into making just the music for the movie! One of the bloggers/actresses in our group (Carla Renata) was able to do a bit of Whitney Houston in the Sound stage, because it has some of the best acoustics in the world, and it was incredible!
As we were taking the tourit was really fun to hear all of the different stories that our Tour guide had! She had been a tour guide for close to 16 years and had seen so many different things. I was really excited when we came to the Happy Madison Production company. I was really hoping to see Adam Sandler drinking coffee or just hanging out (no such luck!) BUT on our way there I did spot the parking space for Bryan Cranston from Breaking Bad AND I was able to take a picture of myself with Paul Feig (director of the new Ghostbusters) car! 
Where Happy Madison production is now used to be where Sean Connery would spend his time. Our tour guide let us know that he was a very nice guy and she would see him hanging out there from time to to time! It was so cool to see all of the different celebrities car spaces and of course to spend some time outside trying to spot the stars!
We were also able to see onto the live set of the Goldbergs which is going into it’s 4th season. We weren’t able to take any pictures, but the Goldbergs takes place in the 80’s and it’s on my must watch list now! I grew up in the 80’s and walking around the Goldbergs set was seriously a blast from the past. In one of the boys rooms I saw garbage pail kids, Ghostbusters items and puffy stickers. There were floral drapes and wall paper in almost every room and I think I spotted my parent’s dining room table! Next we were able to tour the set of the show Ray Donovan, I haven’t seen that show but part of the set is where the wicked witch from Wizard of Oz burned up! You can actually see the scorch marks from where the pit was that she was supposed to fall into.
One of the cool stories that our Tour guide told us is that Margaret Hamilton who played the Wicked Witch caught on fire during the part where she is melting. She had to call a friend to come get her and take her to the hospital because she wasn’t under contract! She came back to set and refused to get on the broom that was going to be flying into the air. So they had a stand in replace her for that scene and that person caught on fire and broke some bones doing that scene! Well then Billie Burke who was under contract sprained her ankle and the press and everything made a huge deal because she was under contract at the time! It was so cool to hear these stories about this lot that has really been around for so long!
We also were able to tour where Wheel of Fortune is filmed! I actually got to see the real wheel and letter board. I grew up watching Wheel of Fortune and have loved that show! The Sony lot also tapes tons of other shows like Jeopardy, Dr. Ken, Better Call Saul, Breaking Bad and more!
It was so much fun being able to chat about TV Shows, Actors, Movies and more!
Don’t forget to follow along on our Social Media pages under #Ghostbloggers to learn more about my fun adventure in LA, as well as other bloggers who were on the trip!
Also, stay tuned for my interview with the cast that is posting this Wednesday and my review of the Ghostbusters movie this Friday!
Ghostbusters opens in theaters everywhere this Friday!
Watch the Ghostbusters trailer…
