Beautiful Burbank

MANILA, Philippines - A visit to Los Angeles county will never be complete without saying hi-dee-do to Burbank City, where the mighty dream makers we call studios are. It is tauted as the “Media Capital of the World,” since it has many media and entertainment companies, including Warner Bros. Entertainment, Warner Music Group, NBC Universal, The Walt Disney Company, Cartoon Network, Viacom and PBS.

Named after David Burbank, a New Hampshire-born dentist and entrepreneur who brought acres of land on the slopes and foothills that rise to the Verdugo Mountains from the eastern end of the San Fernando Valley and built a ranch which metamorphosed into the bristling commercial hub we know now, Burbank City proudly harbors a civic center and key neighborhoods sheltered on the slopes and foothills rambling 12 miles (19 km) north of Downtown LA.

Braving the cold of autumn ‘89, my husband and I (though heavy with our youngest son Tim) took the bus to NBC studios to see Jeopardy! an American quiz show featuring trivia in topics such as history, literature, the arts, pop culture, science and sports. The show, hosted by then raven-haired Alex Trebek, has a unique answer-and-question format in which contestants are presented with clues in the form of answers, and must phrase their responses in question form.

The show has been on air for decades since its creation by Merv Griffin in 1964. It first ran in the daytime on NBC from March 30, 1964 until Jan. 3, 1975; concurrently ran in a weekly syndicated version from Sept. 9, 1974 to Sept. 5, 1975; and subsequently ran in a revival from Oct. 2, 1978 to March 2, 1979. We still see its international edition on cable in the Philippines, though the winsome host appearing on stage, as the metronomic cadence of the very popular theme song is played, is graying.

Again, enduring the nippy air of winter ‘05, my husband and I took our three sons to Warner Brothers Studio to catch the taping in front of a live audience of Joey, spinning off from the hugely successful Friends. This sitcom, created by Scott Silveri and Shana Goldberg Meehan, which starred Matt LeBlanc reprising his role as Joey Tribbiani, premiered on the NBC television network on Sept. 9, 2004, in the former timeslot of its parent series, Thursday nights at 8 p.m. Midway through the second season, the show was stashed at the back burner by NBC but returned on March 7, 2006, in a new timeslot of Tuesdays at 8:30 p.m. Unfortunately, it was overshadowed by American Idol, and was pulled out by NBC — going the predictable way of most spin offs. Despite winning the People’s Choice Award of Favorite New Television Comedy, it was cancelled in the summer of 2006, its remaining episodes buried in neverland.

Its producers have played the finger pointing game, for the failure to develop an interesting story line, but we can only feel sorry for LeBlanc, who was nominated for the Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Television Comedy or Musical for the short-lived show of two seasons and 46 episodes. Our middle son Noel, who hollered a mighty “how ye doin” to LeBlanc when we saw him cooling his heels by the stairs to the sound stage, would rather remember Joey as the cooky fellow, but solid friend to his Central Perk chums before his fatal move from New York to California to chase his acting dream.

This summer, escaping the oppressive heat of Manila, and seeking refuge in the balmy spring of California, my husband, three sons and I revisited this place which Johnny Carson once called Beautiful Burbank, courtesy of our in-laws, Erwin and Marivic, who took time from their bustling dental practice to arrange for a VIP tour of Warner Brothers for both their family and ours.

Our party of 11 had a quick lunch at Bob’s Big Boy Restaurant in Burbank (est. 1949), the oldest remaining of the chain in America, designated a California Point of Historical Interest 1993. Located at 4211 Riverside Drive, it was designed by Wayne McAllister like a family-oriented diner, featuring a soaring pylon sign, an open kitchen and big picture windows, typical of Southern California’s 40s-60s Googie architecture.

Having just gotten off our tram ride through the huge studio complex, we gawked at the balcony of the beach front house of Charlie Harper, marvelling at the stage engineering which made the rippling waves of the Malibu beach seem real. Just then, news broke out of the impending jail term of Two and a Half Men’s Charlie Sheen. This charming guy fell off the wagon again, instigating domestic violence. Sad that despite being the highest-paid actor in American television, Martin Sheen’s third son, Carlos Irwin Estevez in real life, had to wrestle with his demons in the unrelenting public glare.

Garry, our affable guide, had very kind words for Sheen, though, confirming what People Magazine wrote, of “a sterling work ethic by a regular actor just doing his job.” From the table reading stage to the actual shooting with a very discriminating audience at the sound stage we walked through, Sheen would be fine and dandy, “always incredibly professional, but especially in times of personal crisis,” his co-star Cryer avers. No wonder, despite Sheen’s failure to sober up, CBS Entertainment and Warner Bros. Television reached a multi-year broadcast agreement for Two and a Half Men, renewing the series through the 2011-12 season.

Two and a Half Men, which premiered on CBS on Sept. 22, 2003, is now the leading American television comedy series, starring Sheen with another once teen-age star, Jon Cryer and the bouncing ball of mischief, Angus Jones. The loveable cad of a jingle writer, Charlie and his uptight chiropractor brother Alan, are trying to make the semblance of a happy home for the latter’s son, Jake. Their well-meaning efforts are mostly thwarted by the women in the show: the brother’s feisty mother, Evelyn Harper, maxed out by Holland Taylor; the boy’s mother, Judith Melnick, played by Marin Hinkle; and even the nosy housekeeper Berta, caricatured by Conchata Ferrel. One brick-a- bat about the show, despite its consistent ranking as one of the most watched comedies for the last of its seven seasons, is that it depicts women as cunning and vindictive witches.

As we finished the tour with a complementary group photo at the car museum, our guide reminded us of the   Greased Lightning Car which John Travolta drove in the `70s landmark musical Grease, which used the Riverside location of Burbank City. And a flood of memories of a lost youth seeped in, when my husband and I were young and reckless like Danny Zuko’s gang. I imagine hearing Sandy’s love song, plaintively rendered by Olivia Newton John — Hopelessly Devoted to You playing in the distance, seeing how our eldest son Nomer, is furiously texting the girl he left behind. And I was reminded that we are leaving behind a beautiful city built by people, pride and progress (as its motto states), which we have come to love for the last two decades, despite knowing that it is where many dreams were found and lost.