Smells Like Burnt Gorilla To Me

Years and years ago, I wrote a post about NBC Universal's plans to annex part of their studio backlot to the City of Los Angeles. Even though these plans are still currently in the planning stage, it looks like they just got a lot more land to work with.

On Sunday, a massive fire broke out on the Universal Studios backlot. At least 500 firefighters were called in to help stop the blaze. The fire caused tens of millions of dollars of damage. It's the seventh fire to cause significant damage on the backlot.

A lot of history went up in the fire. The New York Street set, last seen most extensively in Bruce Almighty, was almost entirely destroyed. Courthouse Square, which has been involved in the last three fires, was partially destroyed. (Oddly enough, the actual Courthouse, made famous in Back to the Future, survived the fire, just as it survived the previous two.) A vault building, containing copies of videos and 35mm prints, was destroyed. And, most tragically, the famous King Kong ride was burned right to the ground.

The funny thing about this that I don't think people realize that this is kind of a big deal, that all this shit burnt down. I watched a video on Yahoo where an LA TV station was interviewing people who were pissed that they wouldn't be able to get into the studio while it was burning to the ground. Millions of dollars in property burning to the ground, and these folks are mad that they won't be able to see where Desperate Housewives is shot.

According to Universal's president Ron Meyer, everything will be rebuilt to it's previous condition. The King Kong ride, however, is gonezo, to be replaced by some even more ridiculous attraction.

While all this stuff getting destroyed is tragic, it could have been a lot worse; the whole thing could have burned down. Hopefully, they'll get it all rebuilt and keep it from catching on fire again.