Finding myself in the situation of being super early for work this morning, I decided to take a detour a few blocks out of my way to view for myself a little of piece pop culture in all of its glory. My office is located in Torrance, CA, and as it just so happens, the exterior of Torrance High School was used for location filming in one of my favorite TV shows of all time, Buffy the Vampire Slayer (laugh if you will, but that show was awesome--all seven seasons are available on DVD, FYI). It was also used for 90210 (both original recipe and re-boot) and probably just about every teen movie that ever hit the market.
Sadly, I was kind of disappointed. It just looks......well, different. The stone of the facade seems darker, the front lawn isn't as wide and sprawling as it appears on film, and sadly (though it's to be expected), you really can't see much. It also makes you go "Hmm" because the high school is not lined up flush to the street, as it would appear on TV; it actually sits at an angle and the "street" that you see on TV is actually just more of an access drive/drop off point. But as you drive past you can see the curved, covered walkway where Giles delivers his "The earth is doomed" line at the end of the first episode.
Part of me wishes that I hadn't gone to see it. Sure, I've done the back lot tours at Universal Studios, but I was never nearly such a big fan of the shows that you see there as I was for BtVS (that's how we fans abbreviate it *insert proverbial 'lol' here*). I love that show and I completely bought in to the universe of that show as it was presented to me, but I didn't realize how seeing the school in real life would affect my illusion of that fantasy world. Because now the next time I watch an episode, I'll be looking at those exterior shots in a completely different way. Not so much the same feeling I had after the tour tram went through the Desperate Housewives set.
Ah, well, it is a TV show, after all. It's not real and for the sake of creative license things are not always presented as they are in real life. And I know that. And normallly I wouldn't even give it a second thought. It must just be that the show struck a very deep chord in me when I never expected it to and so my perception of it is different than with anything else. Much love for the world that Joss Whedon created; the romance, the fantasy, the danger, the drama, the comedy, and the oh-so-delicious helpings of teenage angst, with just the right amount of witty reparte thrown in, mixed together to make one of the best shows that's ever been on television. Once you get over the silliness of the name (which I'd like to think is an intentional commentary on how we judge books by their covers--the show is anything but silly and pointless as the name would suggest), it's just one of those guilty pleasures that you can lose yourself in. Over and over and over again.
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