Hollywood of the South

Monday, March 26, 2018

Did y'all know that Georgia is called the 'Hollywood of the South'?  There has been tons (& by tons I mean 80+in Covington, GA alone) television episodes/series and movies filmed in Georgia...who knew!!!

Has anyone watched The Vampire Diaries?  We recently finished watching all 8 seasons of The Vampire Diaries.  It was amazing!  It was life changing (too much?)!  However, when it ended (that was a super sad day), there were long, drawn out discussions about what we would watch next because nothing we were watching was living up to The Vampire Diaries (if you've watched it, then you get it).  When we thought all was lost and we would never be able to watch another series (dramatic, I'm aware), here came Netflix's Stranger Things (also filmed in GA)!  Have you seen it?  Don't you love Eleven???  (I haven't seen season 2 yet, so no spoilers, please).  Let's face it, if a tv series/movie has anything to do with anything supernatural, then we are all about it!  And when we found out about The Vampire Diaries/Mystic Falls tour in Covington, GA it wasn't a question of if we were going but when we were going.  We went this past Saturday and it was everything I thought it would be but so much more (seeing as this was my first television series filming tour).

Covington, GA is a great small town less then 40 miles from Atlanta, GA.  The town is filled with beautiful historic homes and like I said before has been the filming location of 80+TV series/movies (ex. In the Heat of the Night, Sleepy Hollow, and My Cousin Vinny).  Does anyone remember watching In the Heat of the Night?  More about that later on...  We arrived a little early for the tour so we decided to walk around the town square.  Around the square they have stars...

 

We met at the Visitor Center to begin our tour.  Right outside of the visitor center is the 'Welcome to Mystic Falls' sign.
Inside the visitor center is memorabilia from The Vampire Diaries, In the Heat of the Night, and Dukes of Hazzard
 Bubba (In the Heat of the Night)

 Wedding Flowers (The Vampire Diaries)

 Dukes of Hazzard
 In the Heat of the Night
 One of the wedding dresses used for Caroline's wedding (they ended up using a dress similar to this one and adding sleeves for filming)
 Jacket worn by Stephan (Paul Wesley)
 Jacket worn by Damon (Ian Somerhalder) in Season 3
 In the Heat of the Night filming photos
In the Heat of the Night and Dukes of Hazzard memorabilia

Our tour started in the historic town square.
 Court House.  In the Heat of the Night it was the Sparta Courthouse.  In The Vampire Diaries it was where Chief Forbes office was located, where Damon would hang out (on the ledge), where Damon threw Vicki out of the window,and where the bell (that rang while we were walking around) is located...needless to say many scenes were shot on/in/around the court house.
 Bench used during the filming of Vampire Diaries
 The beautiful town square.  Many scenes were filmed here!
 When filming of The Vampire Diaries this location was an accounting firm.  So the outside was changed to be the Mystic Grill but the inside remained an office until about 3 years into filming.  There was a fire in the building and the accounting firm relocated at which time it was turned into a restaurant.  However no scenes were shot on the inside, only the outside of the Mystic Grill.

We then drove to the cemetery for a walk through...
The scene from Aunt Jenna's funeral was filmed in this location.

After the cemetery, we were off for a neighborhood walking tour.
 Gram's House in the Vampire Diaries (The house was brown during filming...the current owner recently painted.)
 Isobel's foreclosure home she took over when she came into town (The Vampire Diaries)
 Caroline's House
 Elena Gilbert's House
The Lockwood Mansion.

The Lockwood Mansion is a gated property.  We were very excited to be able to go behind the gates and tour the exterior of the property and meet the owner.
 
Many scenes were filmed behind Lockwood Mansion including Caroline and Stephan's wedding.
 A masquerade mask signed by the cast of The Vampire Diaries along with other photos from filming

The above three items were located in a room off the back porch where the cast would hang out in between takes.  The Lockwood Mansion was the last stop on our 3 hour tour.  I highly recommend taking this tour (they also offer other tours as well like The Originals (a spin off of The Vampire Diaries) tour).  The tours are through Vampire Stalkers.

After a quick stop for lunch at Your Pie (so good!), we visited Wild Art and purchased this print by the owner (& local artist), Ann Wildmon.
Can't wait to frame it!!

We walked back over to the Vampire Stalkers Gift Shop for some exploring and to purchase a souvenir or two.  There are tons of Vampire Diaries, The Originals, The Walking Dead, Stranger Things, Dukes of Hazzard, and In the Heat of the Night souvenirs and filming memorabilia...it's fantastic and overwhelming all at the same time.  I probably went through the gift shop 4-5 times because I kept seeing something new that I hadn't see my previous time.
 Angel from the Cemetery
 Damon's Jacket (Signed by Ian Somerhalder)
 Elena's Gradation clothes

 Shoes & bag from the Vampire Diaries
Alaric Saltzman

While we were at the Visitor Center, I picked up the In the Heat of the Night self-guided tour brochure.  To give a little back story about my love for In the Heat of the Night, this is the show that I remember watching episode after episode with my Granpa.  I have probably seen every episode of In the Heat of the Night at least 5 times (if not more)...it was such an amazing show!  If you haven't seen it, rerun episodes are on daily.

 Bill Gillespie's House (it's currently for sale if you're interested!)

Virgil Tibbs House

In addition to the few Vampire Diaries souvenirs I purchased, I also purchased a In the Heat of the Night t-shirt.  If my Granpa were still here, I'm sure he would think it's pretty cool.

I learned so much from this trip to Covington, GA.  Georgia has so much to offer and the people that we encountered were so friendly and knowledgeable about the area that we are already planning more trips to Georgia.  Any recommendations of places to visit in Georgia? 

Happy Travels,
Amber

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