Universal Studios Goes Up in Flames

Filed Under Blockbusters, Movies, Theme Parks

I had been planning on going to Universal Studios Hollywood this weekend anyway. The Simpsons ride had recently opened, and although I’ll never forgive the park developers for putting it where “Back to the Future: The Ride” once stood, I still wanted to check it out. Then this morning, I read on Yahoo that a fire had broken out on the backlot, demolishing sections of the Studio Tour, including the King Kong attraction and the Clock Tower set from “Back to the Future.” Fate has been rather unkind to BTTF of late. And all of this happened because they were filming some dopey commercial.

At any rate, the Universal Studios Hollywood website pushed back the park opening to noon. I hastily bought a ticket online and made off for Universal City. The added value of the park being one ginormous inferno was a strong enough selling point to spice up my Sunday; imagine the photos.

Well, as I got closer to the the parking lot entrance, I found myself already sitting in another parking lot — hundreds of cars at a dead stop, waiting to get in. It turned out that the entrance off Cahuenga was closed altogether. Not wanting to spoil the surprise, the parking lot attendants allowed us to slowly creep towards the entrance and discover for ourselves that it was blocked off by a row of orange cones.

So I got back on the freeway and tried the other entrance off Vineland. It at least appeared to be open. Cars were moving every so often, going somewhere. There I also had a better view of the giant plume of smoke coming from the backlot. When I ultimately got to the intersection right before the parking lot entrance, I asked an attendant if the park was indeed open. He said the it was still closed. Why this was being kept secret was anyone’s guess.

Had my online ticket not been good until December 31st, I would’ve pulled a Clark W. Griswold and forced them to open the park at the barrel of a BB gun. Instead I went to the store and picked up some things I’d forgotten to get last night. Of course, when I got home, I rechecked the Universal Studios Hollywood website. It now said the park had opened at 1, about fifteen minutes after I’d bailed.

I believe Homer Simpson would’ve said, “D’oh.” What I said was NSFW.

UPDATED: According to Wikipedia, the park remained closed for the entire day.

-Brad Lohan

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