The Famous Warner Bros. Ranch Gets Erased for Space...No Fanfare, No Outrage Allowed

The key feature of the Past...is that it lasts. It’s eternal and always there. The true never-ending story. A movie reel ever-spinning. An endless stream of data that can never be fully recorded, fully remembered.

And that's a problem.

If History is endless, it's never complete. And worse, never entirely seen or saved. For history needs a Watcher, one who observes and documents every event and action. Otherwise, like a tree that fell without anyone there, who can say what really happened and what didn’t? And how it happened? Or why? Or exactly when.

Such is the struggle of the poor preservationist, that underappreciated soul who lives to both record and safeguard every facet of human creation. Every TV show. Every video game. Every interview. Every magazine. Every article. Every ad and every jingle. It’s why Wikipedia and Archive.org and The Wayback Machine were created—to give discarded, forgotten art a second chance to exist. Even if no one looks…at least it’s there.

But not everything is safe. While most digital media today can be copied and archived somewhere, the same can’t be said for art of a more physical or temporal nature. Ever see a play at the local community theater? Ever listen to a DJ spout some jokes on FM radio? Ever go to a concert or watch a dance? Now, the tough part: ever go back to rewatch that particular theater performance? Ever figure out how to replay that radio broadcast? Relisten to the song sang live by that passing street performer?

And there’s the rub. Some art, events, and actions can’t be—or otherwise aren’t—preserved for posterity. That local concert or school play or pub band or street parade are probably lost to time the instant the final tune is played, the final word spoken. History, like memory, is ever-ebbing. Because, like memory, it dissipates with age.

Which brings us to this entry’s inspiration. Atticus Shaffer, child star of the delightfully quirky sitcom The Middle, recently posted an insightful YouTube video lamenting the destruction of the storied Warner Bros. Ranch backlot. This was the filming location for many an iconic sitcom and movie, from Bewitched to Lethal Weapon. The property has been largely sold off to the Worthe Real Estate Group which will redevelop the land for parking space, office buildings, and, perhaps ironically, 16 new soundstages. This means destroying the classic houses and fixtures that had long adorned the lot along 411 N Hollywood Way. The homes of Bewitched, I Dream of Jeanie, The Waltons, and numerous others are now rubble—and their legacy significantly dimmed.

Such is the bane of history…most of it is cursed to indifference, to be dismissed and eventually forgotten. The very buildings and props that comprised some of the greatest shows of TV’s golden age have been stricken from existence, like so many relics and heirlooms and artifacts lost to that cloudy, shattered past.

This is why, despite all that preservationists do, most of history is already doomed.--D

The famous WB seal, captured at the Warner Bros. Ranch backlot...back when the lot still existed.

Atticus Shaffer, star of The Middle television show, gives his viewers an impromptu tour of the famous backlot circa 2015. The Walton house, as seen here, is one of the many sets/props/properties to be recently demolished as of 2023.

Mr. Shaffer documents Stage 31 and 32, two of the four soundstages used for The Middle. 31 was used primarily for the Heck's [the sitcom family's] house. 32 was used for the local school, the mall, and other common locations. Both stages were built in the 1940s. Both stages are now gone.