Gate opens on Wisteria Lane

DESPERATE fans of the Desperate Housewives TV series train their attention on the picture-perfect Wisteria Lane during a backlot tour of Universal Studios.

Mixing with the stars ... Universal Studio's train tour gives visitors the opportunity to visit Wisteria Lane and its famous residents / Reuters

THINGS were quiet in Wisteria Lane. The residents of the tidy suburban street made famous in the TV series Desperate Housewives must have been taking a tea break.

But it didn't stop the rowdy group of excited and hopeful young Latino boys sitting behind us in the tram from whistling and cat-calling: "Eva! Where are you? Take off your clothes!"

The set of the neighbourhood staring the object of their desire, Eva Longoria, is one of a number of famous movie and TV sets that a backlot tram tour of Universal Studios in Hollywood, Los Angeles, takes you through.

As well as Wisteria Lane, the 45-minute tour narrated by Whoopi Goldberg snakes past Amity Bay (Jaws); Whoville (The Grinch); 19th Century Transylvania (Van Helsing); the Bates hotel (Psycho), Skull Island (King Kong) and many more.

We even drove through the $US9 million ($10.91 million) plane-crash set of Stephen Spielberg's War of the Worlds. The biggest set ever created for a motion picture, it used a real Boeing 747 to simulate the disaster scene.

The backlot tour of Universal Studios is a highlight of a visit to the park for movie buffs, but while you're there you may as well sample some of the attractions, including Jurassic Park: The Ride (prepare to get wet) and Revenge of the Mummy: The Ride (prepare to be scared, if going on rollercoasters in the pitch dark scares you).

One of the new attractions is the walk-through House of Horrors. Here, you'll encounter some iconic horror movie characters, including Frankenstein, Chucky and the creepy dude from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

You can also experience a 4-D Shrek movie (remember to duck when Donkey sneezes) or take a virtual trip through space and time in a motion simulator theatre on Back to the Future: The Ride.

(Twentieth Century Fox has recently announced it will be opening a new Simpson's ride next year, rumoured to replace Back to the Future.)

There are also a number of live shows, including a Water World stunt display, and Fear Factor Live (after the reality TV show). But these are seasonal and it takes some co-ordination to make sure you don't miss them during the day.

While sipping your frosted lemonade or munching your churro (a kind of long Mexican doughnut) you'll have plenty of photo opportunities with the park's roaming movie characters (Shrek, Spiderman, Lucille Ball and Marilyn Monroe were at large on the day of this writer's visit).

And if you get hungry you can buy an All You Can Eat All Day Long Pass, in true American style.

Kids will love the theme park aspect of Universal Studios, but for adults this shouldn't overshadow the fact that the complex, perched on the Hollywood Hills and offering sweeping views of Los Angeles, is not only a working movie studio but a site imbued with film-making history.

The tram tour, with video screens showing excerpts of movies and TV shows made onsite, gives a behind-the-scenes glimpse of Hollywood, taking you through a range of sets and sound stages, as well as the bungalows where writers, producers and directors (including Alfred Hitchcock) worked and still work today.

The tour also includes some special effects gimmickry; we were trapped in an earthquake, deluged by a flood, witnessed a backdraft fire explode into life and had a close encounter with the mechanical shark from Jaws.

We didn't see any stars on the day we visited, although this can be a possibility, and Jim Carey was said to have chased after the trams in full costume during filming of The Grinch.

Our guide told us to look out for the cast of Desperate Housewives, which was filming that day.

Sadly, the only talent we saw on Wisteria Lane - or anywhere else for that matter - was a bloke with a clipboard, who smiled bemusedly when someone called out, "hey! Are you famous?"

Better luck next time, perhaps.

The writer was a guest of Flight Centre and Air Tahiti Nui.