On Location Tours DC

This weekend I was invited by fellow blogger, Erin, to go on an "On Location Tour" of Washington, D.C.'s popular TV & Movie Sites. Eager to play tourist in my own city, I met our tour guide bright and early at 10am at Union Station.

The group consisted of about 10 people, 4 of whom were locals. We were greeted by our extreemly cheerful, if somewhat over-zealous "professional actor" tourguide, and ushered into a charter bus. The majority of the three hour tour was spent on the bus, watching quick 5 second clips of movies that featured Washington landmarks in the background, such as Forrest Gump, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, and a parking lot featured in Evan Almighty. For a tour that features clips of movies, one would think the TVs would be larger than 10 inches! The last 20 minutes of the tour were spent on foot, culminating in a trip to the steps in Georgetown featured in Poltergeist.

Reactions to the tour varied. For the older folks from out of town, they were into the fast-food like movie trivia, and I overheard some remarks of, "Oh, [the tourguide] really knows his stuff!" and "This is great!" Some people even took notes.

Personally, I found that the tour skimmed the surface on any one topic to keep my interest. It did not go into much detail on Washington landmarks or on movie trivia. Most of the three hours was spent with comments like, "And this scene was filmed here," interspersed with a plethora of corny jokes.

I won't go to deeply into the tour guide issue. As an actor myself, I can understand how hard it is to find suitable part time jobs. But if this guide's demeanor was any tribute to his comedic timing, I am not surprised he is out of work.

www.screentours.com boasts a 4.5/5 star approval rating and features NYC film tours including a Sex and the City tour and a Sopranos Tour.

I give the Washington D.C. TV & Movie Tour a 1.5/5 stars.