The Warner Bros. Water Tower is a historic

water tower A water tower is an elevated structure supporting a water tank constructed at a height sufficient to pressurize a water distribution system, distribution system for potable water, and to provide emergency storage for fire protection. Water towe ...

located at the

Warner Bros. Studios Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. D ...

Burbank, California Burbank is a city in the southeastern end of the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Located northwest of downtown Los Angeles, Burbank has a population of 107,337. The city was named after David Burbank, w ...

. Built in 1927, it stands tall. The tank, which had a capacity of , is no longer used to hold water and has the WB shield on either side of it. It now serves as a company icon.

History and usage in media

The tower was previously located next to the Warner Bros. Fire Department, and was moved following the

1933 Long Beach earthquake The 1933 Long Beach earthquake took place on March 10 at south of downtown Los Angeles. The epicenter was offshore, southeast of Long Beach, California, on the Newport–Inglewood Fault. The earthquake had a magnitude estimated at 6.4 , and a m ...

, when the Warners realized that if the tower fell onto the Fire Department, it would disrupt emergency assistance. Towers such as these were a common feature of Hollywood studios of the era, as they provided an emergency water supply in case of fire. Similar towers can be found at the

Walt Disney Walter Elias Disney (; December 5, 1901December 15, 1966) was an American animator, film producer and entrepreneur. A pioneer of the American animation industry, he introduced several developments in the production of cartoons. As a film p ...

Paramount Paramount (from the word ''paramount'' meaning "above all others") may refer to: Entertainment and music companies * Paramount Global, also known simply as Paramount, an American mass media company formerly known as ViacomCBS. The following busin ...

Universal Universal is the adjective for universe. Universal may also refer to: Companies * NBCUniversal, a media and entertainment company ** Universal Animation Studios, an American Animation studio, and a subsidiary of NBCUniversal ** Universal TV, a ...

and

Sony Pictures Studios The Sony Pictures Studios is an American television and film studio complex located in Culver City, California at 10202 West Washington Boulevard and bounded by Culver Boulevard (south), Washington Boulevard (north), Overland Avenue (west) and ...

(formerly

MGM Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded on April 17, 1924 a ...

) lots. The tower has appeared in a number of productions of the company, including any that showed the studio lot, whether live action or animated. For instance, it serves as the home for Yakko, Wakko, and Dot Warner from the Warner Bros. animated series ''

Animaniacs ''Animaniacs'' is an American animated comedy musical television series created by Tom Ruegger for Fox Broadcasting Company's Fox Kids block in 1993, before moving to The WB in 1995, as part of its Kids' WB afternoon programming block, unti ...

'', starting in-universe from the 1930s until their escape in the 1990s, with them moving back into the tower in the 2020 revival. The water tower (including the block's logo adorning the tower) and its studio backdrop were used in interstitials for

Kids' WB Kids' WB (stylized as Kids' WB!) was an American children's programming service and brand of The WB that aired on the network from September 9, 1995, to September 16, 2006. The block moved to The CW (a result of the merger of Time Warner's The WB ...

, a children's programming block that primarily ran from 1995 to 2006 on

The WB The WB Television Network (for Warner Bros., or the "Frog Network", for its former mascot, Michigan J. Frog) was an American television network launched on broadcast television on January 11, 1995, as a joint venture between the Warner Bros. ...

network, and later on

The CW ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

network from 2006 to 2008. The tower is also the basis for the name and logo of the company's record label,

WaterTower Music WaterTower Music (formerly New Line Records from 2000 to 2010) is an American record label serving as the in-house music label and run by entertainment company Warner Bros., ultimately owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The name and logo are based o ...

. An inspired version was built in Warner Bros. Park Madrid in 2002, and another one has been built in 2018 at the front entrance of the Warner Bros. World theme park in Abu Dhabi, UAE. Occasionally, the water tower has been repainted to promote the 90th anniversary of the studio, the release of ''

The Lego Batman Movie ''The Lego Batman Movie'' is a 2017 computer-animated superhero comedy film produced by Warner Animation Group, DC Entertainment, RatPac Entertainment, Lego System A/S, Dan Lin's Lin Pictures, Phil Lord and Christopher Miller's Lord Miller Pro ...

'', and the launch of

HBO Max HBO Max is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. Launched in the United States on May 27, 2020, the service is built around the libraries of HBO, Warner Bros., Cartoon Netw ...

, and it was repainted again to reflect the formation of

Warner Bros. Discovery Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc. (WBD) is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at 230 Park Avenue South in New York City. It was formed after the spin-off of WarnerMedia by AT&T, and its merger with D ...

. Starting with the HBO Max original film, '' Locked Down'', the repainted water tower is featured in the current

Warner Bros. Pictures Warner Bros. Pictures is an American film production and distribution company of the Warner Bros. Pictures Group division of Warner Bros. Entertainment (both ultimately owned by Warner Bros. Discovery). The studio is the flagship producer of ...

opening for the first time and is now the focal point of the studio lot (now rendered in

photorealistic Photorealism is a genre of art that encompasses painting, drawing and other graphic media, in which an artist studies a photograph and then attempts to reproduce the image as realistically as possible in another medium. Although the term can be ...

CGI) portion of the sequence. The entire opening sequence was rendered as CGI by Devastudios to show the studio lot at magic hour, with the sun rising over the

Cahuenga Pass The Cahuenga Pass (, ; Tongva: ''Kawé’nga'') is a low mountain pass through the eastern end of the Santa Monica Mountains in the Hollywood Hills district of the City of Los Angeles, California. It has an elevation of . The Cahuenga Pass connec ...

to the south, using

Terragen Terragen is a scenery generator program for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X developed and published by Planetside Software. It can be used to create renderings and animations of landscapes. History Released in stages (tech preview and beta ...

for the sky and clouds, along with the studio's blueprints from the Warner Bros. Studio Facilies and the available

photography Photography is the art, application, and practice of creating durable images by recording light, either electronically by means of an image sensor, or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. It is employed ...

and

videography Videography is the process of capturing moving images on electronic media (e.g., videotape, direct to disk recording, or solid state storage) and even streaming media. The term includes methods of video production and post-production. It used ...

from Warner Bros. Studio Tour Hollywood and

Google Maps Google Maps is a web mapping platform and consumer application offered by Google. It offers satellite imagery, aerial photography, street maps, 360° interactive panoramic views of streets ( Street View), real-time traffic conditions, and rou ...

, all in order to reconstruct it in CGI. In real life, the sun rises in the east, over the Forest Lawn cemetery and the Walt Disney Studios.

Gallery

File:Gate 4 Warner Bros. Studios.jpg File:Warner Bros studios Burbank -water tower.jpg File:Water tower WB (2).jpg File:Warner Bros. Studios Water Tower 2020.jpg

References

{{coord, 34.15050, -118.33863, format=dms, type:landmark_region:US-CA, display=title Warner Bros. Studios Buildings and structures in Burbank, California Water towers in California Towers completed in 1927 1927 establishments in California

History and usage in media

Gallery

See also

References